Help Roger Heal-Overcome Severe Illness & Financial Hardship

Link to ABC7 Leah Hope story on Roger aired 9/3

Roger Naglewski, who has selflessly helped thousands of people in need by launching and managing Chicago Vaccine Hunters on Facebook and who hosted multiple immensely popular dry social events for Chicago's sober community, now needs your help!

~Please feel free to share the details and/or post the link on your favorite social media; it would be greatly appreciated!~

This past January, Roger experienced what he thought was the start of a new season of a long-term chronic health condition that keeps him mostly homebound with challenging symptoms. The severity this time led to an initial hospitalization in February, and yet the illness progressed further, and on April 1st, he was admitted again. Unbeknownst to Roger, he was experiencing an extreme pancreatitis attack, and his body was in septic shock. The diagnosis led to a four-month in-patient (and still counting) hospital stay, including multiple stays in the ICU for septic shock. Roger was recently released yet the continuing recovery process is maddeningly slow, he is still ill, and in & out of hospital stays will continue over the months ahead. (A severe pancreatitis attack is known to have an up & down long recovery.)

Due to this severe illness, Roger has been unable to work this year and due to the type of ongoing symptoms, will not be able to work until he is fully recovered. The inability to work has, of course, induced financial hardship and worries.

With all the illness activities and stress, it was not realized until recently to apply for disability insurance. We are in the process of applying, but we have learned it is an arduous process with a high denial rate.

Because of this and more, Roger’s friends are rallying to support him with a GoFundMe effort, acknowledging Roger's always giving nature and heart to others in in times of need. Especially;

1. The multiple dry-and-super-fun social events he ideated, spearheaded, and organized in a volunteer effort over multiple years for the sober community and hundreds of enthusiastic attendees

2. Launching and managing Chicago Vaccine Hunters on Facebook to serve and support those with immune-compromised health conditions with information on how to receive the first vaccine dose faster. The group quickly grew to +70k members with an unknown amount of lives supported but it’s believed Roger and the team were directly responsible for helping tens of thousands of people get the Covid vaccine and potentially saving thousands of lives.

Please see the below link to a news story on Roger & the Chicago Vaccine Hunters.

Link to Roger's Chicago Vaccine News Story

We kindly invite you to show your love and support for Roger in one of these ways:

+ Prayers & Positive Thoughts: Please send your prayers and good thoughts to Roger on his path to total physical, emotional, and mental healing; may he become even stronger than he was before!

+ In-person Support: As anyone with a health diagnosis knows, it can be a lonely experience. Double so when you are a bachelor. Social in-person connections benefit Roger a lot. He enjoys cracking jokes with friends and family and gets energy from being with you. Please reach out with frequent invitations to meet up for a smoothie, a hang out at a park or the lake, a backyard BBQ, or any other social outing. For his well-being, Roger is eager to get out of his condo as often as he is able.

+ Donations: Financial donations of any size would help ease the burden so that Roger can stay focused on healing without added financial stress and worries.

As you can expect, this unexpected illness has put Roger into such financial debt that he may never be able to recover from it. Since Roger's 4-month hospital stay, he has needed to be rushed to the ER and readmitted to the hospital multiple times. Your financial contributions will be used to pay medical costs not covered by insurance and living expenses essentials. These may include prescription meds co-pay, groceries, key home bills, and wellness care not covered by insurance.

Thank you for any support you can offer. Roger is lucky to have such a supportive community of caring friends and family. Thank you so much.