Purple Day 2021 - a globally recognised day for epilepsy awareness
Purple Day 2021 was an eventful day for MMEC, despite the COVID pandemic restrictions.
We had come up with several fun ways for people to support and get involved with Purple Day. This included creating a special Facebook Frame for people’s profile pictures, which people used either before or on Purple Day. We also promoted a ‘Get Purple for Purple Day!’ tagline, which encouraged people to take purple themed photos and share them on social media on Purple Day.
Several members of staff were also active on both our Facebook and Twitter pages throughout the day, sharing some purple themed photos; a link to our JustGiving page; useful information such as seizure first aid; and interacting with others who were also celebrating Purple Day.
A new thing we did this year was create a special video on the chosen topic of epilepsy and mental health. This was posted on YouTube and has been viewed and shared by many people, which is great! It is a topic we felt was important and that we think requires more focus. Epilepsy is so much more than just seizures and can really impact a person’s mental health.
Holly Wagner, who recently took up our voluntary post of Head of Social Media and Website Management, also hosted this month’s #epilepsychats - a monthly Twitter chat for those with epilepsy, their families/carers and clinicians - that was created by Holly a few years ago. In line with our YouTube video, the topic was epilepsy and mental health, as well as Purple Day. People from around the world take part in #epilepsychats sessions and some really interesting and important things were highlighted in relation to this month’s topic.
So it was a successful Purple Day 2021 and what struck us the most was the amount of positivity, friendliness and support among the online epilepsy community regarding Purple Day. It was also great to see so much purple!