Why We Do It
We Exist Because of Jayme
When Jayme was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2025, our family stepped into the reality so many families know: intense logistics, long days at the hospital, and a relentless stream of questions, uncertainty, and fear.
How are we supposed to keep life running while all of this is happening, and so fast?
Privileged with the ability to join for all of Jayme's chemo appointments, Jeff was at Northwestern nearly every day. Doctors and social workers started commenting on how consistently he was there.
He asked why it stood out and the answer landed hard. Most spouses can't come. Not because they don't want to be there, but because they can't leave work, can't afford to miss shifts, and can't cover childcare.
"I was coming to the chemo appointments and the doctors were surprised to see me there, day after day.
When I asked why it was a surprise, they said to me:
'Jeff, most spouses cannot come. They can't take the time off. They have to work and take care of the kids.'"
Jeff Schwartz
Founder, JRFS Foundation
The care team went on to explain a detail that left Jeff speechless. Leave policies many people rely on, such as FMLA, rarely protect the spouse in the way most families assume.
So patients go through the hardest stretch of their lives while the people who love them most are pulled away by sheer necessity.
“Patients are running out of time and their spouse or families cannot be with them while they fight this terrible disease," a social worker told Jeff.
This broke his family's hearts, knowing other families couldn't be together during these impossible circumstances, ones they were themselves, simply because of financial barriers.
“Once these individuals receive their cancer diagnosis, existing hardships are magnified exponentially.
The cost of cancer impacts the individual in every facet – financially, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Having to re-allocate finances to the all-encompassing care of cancer exacerbates hardships people were already experiencing and trying to manage.
Funds received from JRFS provide a level of comfort and solace in the recipients ability to use funding in a way they can lessen their financial stressors and concentrate their efforts on their care.”
Taylor Lenz (LSW, OSW-C), Oncology Social Worker, Northwestern Medicine
Finding the Silver Linings
"Even near the end, Jayme wanted to transform her pain into something purposeful."
Jeff Schwartz, Founder, JRFS Foundation
Jayme, an eternal optimist, always believed in turning every situation, no matter how bad it seemed, into a potential to help others. But after months of battling this brutal disease, she was weary from the fight.
One afternoon, she turned to Jeff, "You're my silver linings guy. I need you to find some silver linings here."
Jeff took that plea to heart. If money was keeping families apart, then the right response was to move money, quickly, to the families who needed it most.
"I realized at that moment, something good had to come out of this really horrible situation. There are things in our control and things that are not.
But this is something we can do: offer a silver lining for others, for other families who need something good to happen for them, too."