Meet Team Illinois State Representative, JoJo Higgs

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RISING STARS IN ENDOMETRIOSIS ACTIVISM SERIES

We are very excited to introduce JoJo Higgs, an amazing Endo Activist from Southern Illinois and Founder of the Endometriosis Crisis Connection. JoJo is now on board to travel to the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield as State Representative for Endo Advocacy Day 2020. You can learn more about JoJo below, and be sure to follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and/or Facebook!

If you would like to travel to your State Capitol to meet with elected officials as part of next year’s Endo Advocacy Day (Friday, March 27, 2020), just click here to schedule a phone appointment with one of our EndoMarch team members so that you can learn more. In the interim, you can click here to keep track of how many State Representatives we have on board already.


ABOUT JOJO HIGGS

JoJo Higgs, of Southern Illinois, is the Founder of Endometriosis Crisis Connection. Her works stretch from active endometriosis advocacy, bridging the gap between providers and patients, and organizing peer-to-peer chats to relieve the challenges Endometriosis causes that are oftentimes overlooked by the medical community. These include but not limited to isolation, pressure, and anxiety.

In addition to that, JoJo is a Developmental Therapist who works with developmentally delayed and special needs babies and toddlers, helping them achieve their goals and milestones. JoJo needed a career that not only she was passionate about, but also allowed her flexibility as living with Endometriosis can be difficult to navigate and demands adaptability. She is fueled by helping others succeed, but also monitors her endometriosis symptoms like pain, fatigue, and brain fog to name a few.

Her endometriosis journey began at a very young age and came to a head in 2016 when her total Hysterectomy, Oophorectomy, Salpingectomy, and Trachelectomy (removal of uterus, ovaries, tubes and cervix) which in turn caused Stress Seizures, also known as Psuedoseizures. After a whirlwind of events, the seizures finally stopped, and JoJo declared to never let another Endometriosis Patient undergo such trauma alone as she just had.

She started her full-time advocacy in 2019 by starting Endometriosis Crisis Connection after 104 Endometriosis Patients lost their lives in the first 111 days of 2019, and by working with Silvia Young of FemTruth by assisting in gathering stories for her second Endometriosis book. Her philosophy is the more stories we project, the more difficult we will be to ignore.

Since launching the Endometriosis Crisis Connection and building a worldwide team available 24/7 for patients to have an outlet, it appears that the number of endometriosis-related deaths (self-induced and otherwise) have decreased tremendously, given the support the team provides. However, it is still too early to make any official declarations of such.