About Ronnie Shaw – Social Security Disability Advocate

I did not set out to become a Social Security advocate. I came into this work because of one of the most painful experiences of my life.

In 2018, my wife, Dyan, was diagnosed with cervical cancer. As she fought for her health, she applied for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits to help provide financial support during her treatment.

Her application was denied.

For the next year, I fought alongside her to understand the Social Security system, the rules, the paperwork, the deadlines, and the process that stood between her and the benefits she desperately needed.

And the truth is, I was doing it alone.

I did not have an advocate I could turn to. I did not have someone who could step in, look at the situation with a clear mind, explain what needed to happen next, or help carry some of the burden.

At the same time I was trying to understand Social Security, I was also dealing with the fear and emotions of watching my wife fight cancer. I was not operating from a calm, detached place. I was a husband trying to save his wife, and every denial, every delay, and every new piece of paperwork made an already unbearable situation even harder.

That is something I never forgot.

When people are dealing with serious illness, disability, financial pressure, and uncertainty about the future, they should not also have to feel like they are fighting the system completely by themselves.

Eventually, after nearly a year of fighting, Dyan’s disability claim was approved.

But on July 12, 2019, Dyan passed away after her cancer returned and spread throughout her body.

We had finally won the battle with Social Security, but I had lost the person I was fighting for.

I will never claim that Social Security caused my wife’s death. I cannot know whether an earlier approval would have changed the course of her illness or the medical care she received. What I do know is that during one of the hardest periods of our lives, I had to spend nearly a year fighting through a system that was supposed to be there to help people like her.

That experience became my education.

I sometimes describe it as the school of hard knocks, because no classroom could have taught me what that year taught me. I learned the Social Security process while living it in real time, with someone I loved depending on me to keep fighting.

After Dyan passed away, I was emotionally exhausted. For a long time, I had to figure out what to do with everything I had experienced and everything I had learned.

Eventually, I realized that I could use it to help someone else.

I knew I could not help everyone. I still cannot. But I made a decision that I did not want other people to feel as alone as I did.

I wanted to be the person I wish I had been able to call back then.

Someone who could look at the situation clearly when emotions were running high. Someone who understood the process. Someone who could explain what was happening, what needed to happen next, and help a person keep moving forward when giving up felt easier.

That is why I do this work.

It has been almost seven years since Dyan passed away, and I have continued helping people navigate Social Security rules, appeals, benefits issues, representative payee matters, and the many complications that can arise when dealing with the Social Security Administration.

For me, advocacy is more than a profession. It is personal.

I know what it feels like to open a denial letter and wonder what you are supposed to do next. I know what it feels like to deal with paperwork and bureaucracy when your attention should be on your family, your health, and your future.

And I know how much difference it can make to have someone in your corner.

That is the reason Shaw Social Security Advocacy Services exists.

Dyan is the reason I began this journey.

And every person I am able to help is part of the reason I continue it.