The Fibrochondriac

Ever thought you’d have a chronic illness? Ever wonder if maybe you might need a legal advocate because of that chronic illness? I know that was not on my radar until I had to stop working due to Fibromayalgia. That’s when Jennifer C. Jaff, Esq. is the Executive Director and driving force of Advocacy for Chronically Ill Patients, Inc. stepped in and saved my bacon.  Jennifer helps over a thousand people a year with issues related to chronic disabilities.

“Helps” sounds so lame compared to what she does. Among other services provided, she kicks butt on health insurance companies that don’t want to provide services and drugs and makes them toe the line. All this work is done at no charge to the patient. Advocacy for Patients exists solely on donations and that’s why I’m writing this. Chase Bank has created a popularity contest on Facebook and will give away millions to the charities with the most votes.

Let me tell you a little bit more so you know what this is about…Jennifer has chronic diseases and dealing with those lead her into helping people with chronic illnesses. There’s a brief bio posted on Chronic Babe and also explains how Advocacy for Patients came into being. Jennifer is a health advocate in every sense of the word. Read her blog and you will be amazed…

And how do I know Jennifer? When I filed the paperwork for disability retirement it was denied, in part due to the half-baked job I did on it because I was too far gone to do the paperwork right. I got lucky and found Advocacy for Patients. Jennifer stepped in, made sense of my mess and was an amazing advocate for me.  We won my disability retirement on appeal. Jennifer ROCKS!

And if my opinion isn’t good enough for you, how about Mike McCready from Pearl Jam? Both Mike McCready and Jennifer Jaff have Crohn’s disease and Pearl Jam has been a strong supporter of Advocacy for Patients. That’s right…how’s this for a quote:

“Jennifer Jaff is one of the best advocates for patients I have ever seen,” said McCready. “It’s super-important for her to fight against the insurance companies that will deny people any kind of coverage for their pre-existing conditions. The work she does is justified, and I just love it. We live in the greatest country in the world, and I have lived here my entire life, but we need to invest our money back into things that look at a broader scope, not just things that are going to make us money. If people are going to die because some legislation didn’t go through, that, to me, is abhorrent. That’s not what America means to me.”

Click the hand to vote!

So the way this game is played is that Chase has partnered with Facebook to make donations to charitable organizations base on the number of votes the organization receives. Got it? Chase is calling it a “grassroots” campaign dedicated to smaller, local non-profits. One non-profit will will a million dollars,  the top five runners-up will receive $100,000 each and the 100 finalists, including the top winners, will be awarded $25,000 each.

Nice chunk of change. Jennifer has specific plans for a specific amount. She wants to win the $100K so she can hire another lawyer and do twice as much.

Voting for Round 1 ends December 11. Voting for Round 2 ends January 22, 2010 and the top charities will be announced on or around February 1. You can take a look at Chase’s FAQ if you have any more questions related to the contest itself.

If you have any other questions, shoot a comment and I’d be happy to help. Just be sure to vote, okay?!!