Eudora ? Five years after her teenage daughter died of cancer, Judi O’Grady’s heartache remains palpable.

Step into her home and the first thing you see on an end table is a book: “Healing Grief.” A few more steps and you’re in the bedroom her daughter, Brooke, occupied before dying at age 15 in 2001 – still cluttered with the girl’s stuffed animals and favorite movies.

“The pain, it’s as much or worse than it ever was,” O’Grady said last week.

But O’Grady hasn’t been paralyzed by that pain. Instead, she’s become a lobbyist.

Earlier this month, she made the trek to Washington, D.C., where she visited the office of every member of the Kansas congressional delegation to campaign for increased funding to research childhood cancer.

It’s a trip she’s been making twice a year since Brooke died.

“It’s a cause that everyone can get behind,” O’Grady said. “We’ve lost 2,500 children a year (to cancer), which is more than we lost the whole time we’ve been in Iraq.”

Judi O'Grady, Eudora, lost her teenage daughter, Brooke, to cancer five years ago and then turned her grief into political action, joining CureSearch and lobbying Kansas congressmen in Washington. Friday in her daughter's former room, which O'Grady uses as her office, O'Grady looks over some of her daughter's belongings.

Kansas congressmen say O’Grady is unusually effective at getting their attention – because she’s a “citizen lobbyist” instead of a paid professional, and because of her deep connection to the cause.

“She may be different than just your average ‘citizen lobbyist’ because of the tragedy of losing her daughter,” said U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., who represents the eastern half of Lawrence. “I just have a special feeling for her.”

U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran, who represents the “Big First” western Kansas district, agreed.

“She tells her story in a way that you, as a parent, can relate to,” Moran said. “It makes me, as a member of Congress, want to do everything I can to accommodate her.”

Volunteer work

Brooke O’Grady was 10 years old when she was diagnosed in 1996 with Hodgkin’s Disease. She spent the next five years battling cancer – undergoing chemotherapy, radiation and a bone-marrow transplant. She died in August 2001.

• CureSearch
• A daughter’s last gift (11-25-2001)
• Eudora girl teaches others how to handle death (11-25-2001)
• Obituary: ‘Brooke’ O’Grady (08-04-2001)

During Brooke’s last years, the O’Gradys became activists, helping raise money for Eudora’s annual “Relay for Life” cancer fundraiser.

“Brooke made me promise to keep working on this,” Judi O’Grady said.

That’s why she joined CureSearch, a partnership of the National Childhood Cancer Foundation and the Children’s Oncology Group, as volunteer lobbyist.

She’s one of about 30 campaigners for CureSearch. Moran said the group’s efforts could be seen in increased funding for the National Institutes of Health, which sponsors childhood cancer research. CureSearch officials say they’ve also been successful in getting targeted allocations from Congress – starting with $750,000 in a water and energy appropriations bill in 2003.

“This year, we were awarded $2.375 million,” O’Grady said. “Which isn’t enough, but we’re grateful for every drop we get.”

She’ll probably head back to Washington in June on another lobbying trip. Meanwhile, she’s convinced Moore to join her on a trip to the oncology department at the University of Kansas Hospital.

Moran said O’Grady proved regular citizens could have a big voice in Washington.

“Most Kansans can’t afford to come out to Washington, D.C.,” he said. “But the people who do, you know they believe in the case that they’re making.”

O’Grady said she would continue making that case until she couldn’t anymore.

“I enjoy it so much, because it helps me keep (Brooke’s) memory alive,” she said. “I intend to go as long as I can.”