Purple Day

March 23, 2022

Written by Megan Moran

Purple Day takes place every year on March 26th. It was started in 2008 by a young woman named Cassidy Megan who struggles with epilepsy. It is a day to create awareness for epilepsy, dispel myths about it, and make people who have seizures feel less alone, while wearing purple. The Epilepsy Association of the Maritimes and The Anita Kaufman Foundation partnered with Cassidy to help create and launch Purple Day around the world.

According to purpleday.org, “Epilepsy is a neurological disorder of the central nervous system, specifically of the brain. It is characterized by the tendency to have recurrent seizures.” They go on to say researchers have found that 0.5% - 1.0% of the population has epilepsy which is approximately 50 million people. People with epilepsy have a three times higher risk of premature death. Those who suffer from epilepsy can treat it with prescription drugs and in some cases they can have surgery to remove the region of the brain that triggers seizures. There are a lot of people who can completely stop their seizures with the surgery or control them with medication but not everyone experiences this.

There are 100 countries that host events for Purple Day; however, Canada is the only country that officially recognizes March 26th as Purple Day with the Purple Day Act implemented on June 28, 2012. You can help promote Purple Day in your community and help inform people about epilepsy with the following tips given by purpleday.org: contact your local epilepsy association and ask to volunteer, contact your local media stations and ask them to do a story about Purple Day and Epilepsy Awareness, have your local epilepsy agency come to your business or school to do an education and seizure first aid training, share Purple Day and Epilepsy information on social media pages, and last but not least wear purple on March 26th!

Source

https://www.purpleday.org/