pd01 Purple Day, March 26th, was started in 2008 by a little girl in Nova Scotia called Cassidy who wanted her friends to know what it really meant for her to live with epilepsy. A child’s dream of sharing her story has turned into a recognized, global movement to raise awareness for epilepsy on March 26th. Visit www.purpleday.org to get more information about her initiative. March 26th is now official Purple Day in Canada thanks to the passage of a federal private members bill supported by all parties in Parliament last year. This year people from all parts of Canada will be wearing purple and working to educate the community about epilepsy: a condition that affects 1 in 100 Canadians but is still very misunderstood by the public. Individuals and groups in our community are working with Epilepsy Toronto to plan events that will help bring better public awareness about the facts and realities of epilepsy. You can show your support by wearing purple on March 26th, and encouraging others to do the same.

#1in100 Campaign!

To learn how you can be apart of it, click HERE.

Due to concerns related to COVID-19, all in person Purple Day events have all been cancelled, including events which had been scheduled at at SickKids, Toronto Western Hospital, Scarborough Health Network, George Brown and across the TDSB.

March Awareness and Purple Day 2020

With the school closures across Ontario, as well as cancelled events by hospitals and public venues, many plans for Purple Day this year did not take place. However, we encouraged everyone to take their Purple Day awareness efforts online. On March 26th, we filled social media with images of people, dressed in purple and raising awareness. The need for epilepsy awareness / understanding is, perhaps, more important in times like these, than ever before. Stigma flourishes in times of fear. Check out #PurpleDayTO, #PurpleDay2020 and @EpilepsyToronto, to see some of these images.

This year we took our Purple Day celebrations online with Facebook for two LIVE Events!

Looking for ideas of how to mark Purple Day this year? Why not decorate your front door or windows? Here’s a fun ‘How To’ video from Epilepsy Toronto’s Child and Youth Worker Christina and her dog Bowie.

The first geared towards children, was hosted by Mackenzie and included Puppets with Teaching Awareness through Puppetry, storytelling with Christina and music with Liam Faber. Watch it below!

The second, was hosted by media personality and person living with epilepsy, Meera Estrada with guests Jen Simpson, Emcee Heavy, Chaim Katz and Jerry Cataflo, and featured music, personal stories and a head shaving!

Thank you to the TD Assistive Technologies team for hosting an enterprise-wide training session on epilepsy.

To help with awareness efforts, we encourage you to participate in the new #1in100 Campaign launched this month by all members of the Canadian Epilepsy Alliance. Click HERE to find out more and to download your #Iam1in100 or #1in100 speech bubble signs.Click on one of the buttons below to download a printable Purple Day Poster to post in you community.