Going Purple For Epilepsy Awareness Month

Tuesday, 26 March 2019 07:22

Photo credit: Epilepsy Southwestern Ontario

Epilepsy Southwestern Ontario is encouraging the public to promote epilepsy awareness through a number of initiatives.

OXFORD COUNTY - Communities across Oxford County are being encouraged to wear purple today for Epilepsy Awareness Month.

Epilepsy Southwestern Ontario is encouraging the public to promote epilepsy awareness through a number of initiatives.

Outreach and Events Director for Epilepsy Southwestern Ontario, Bailey Tschirsow says there are a number of ways the community can get involved.

"So we definitely are trying to, again, trying to encourage people to stand up and tell someone they have epilepsy, share seizure first aid. 1 in 100 people have epilepsy, and 1 in 10 will have a seizure in their lifetime so just becoming an advocate for that. There's lots of misconceptions around epilepsy, so people think you can swallow your tongue which that's not true, so just kind of sharing the education around that. With the Purple Door campaign, we're trying to encourage people to decorate their doors, or maybe it's at a workplace and you participate in a Dress Down Day and you wear purple for the day of to show support. So any donations that are raised in Oxford County do go back to Oxford County, which is great, they stay in the community. We're just trying to spread the awareness and let people know, it's not an uncommon condition it's just that a lot of people don't talk about it, so it's helpful to share that."

Tschirsow says among their initiatives this month is the Purple Door campaign.

"March is National Epilepsy Awareness Month, so specific to Oxford County we're pushing some Purple Door campaigns in schools and workplaces throughout Oxford County. So we're trying to encourage schools to decorate their doors, their classroom doors, to kind of create awareness and get people talking about what epilepsy is and the first aid involved in that."

Throughout the month of March there are a number of opportunities to get involved in your community. To learn more about the number of ways you can raise awareness, you can head to their website.