Celebrities Join Forces with Young Epilepsy to Launch My Purple Pledge

Paint the town purple!

Celebrities join forces with Young Epilepsy to launch My Purple Pledge 

Ben Price, Jack P Shepherd and Paula Lane

Young Epilepsy is urging people all over the country to back flagship campaign ‘My Purple Pledge’ this March, and make a difference to the lives of the 112,000 young people in the UK living with epilepsy.

Backed by a series of famous faces including Commonwealth, European and World Champion 400 metre hurdler Dai Greene, Young Epilepsy is asking the public and celebrities alike to do something purple and help put a spotlight on this misunderstood condition.  

Pledges could range from wearing purple to work or school, baking and selling purple cakes, taking part in a Purple Zumba, or even being sponsored to lie in a bath of blackcurrant juice! Anything goes and the quirkier the better!   Any pledge – big or small – will help raise vital funds for the charity which is the UK’s only national charity dedicated to children and young people with epilepsy and other associated neurological conditions.

‘My Purple Pledge’ coincides with Purple Day (26 March 2012), the international day to mark epilepsy awareness and National Epilepsy Awareness Week (May 2012). 

Purple Day

Young Epilepsy Ambassador, Dai Greene, said: “My Purple Pledge aims to put epilepsy on the map and make people aware of what it really means. I’m fully behind the campaign and will be pledging purple to help improve the lives of a lot of young people with epilepsy. I’m hoping that as many people as possible will be ‘in the purple’ for the 26 March and help raise desperately needed funds for such a deserving cause.

“Epilepsy effects over 112,000 children and young people under the age of 25 – including myself - and is the most common neurological condition in the UK.  Despite this, it’s still relatively unknown and has little awareness.” 

Stavros Flatley

Lisa Farmer, Director of Fundraising at Young Epilepsy, commented: “My Purple Pledge is a fun way of generating awareness about a very serious condition.  All monies raised through the campaign will be used to provide life-changing support through our special school, college, medical centre and residential homes.  Ultimately, it will help young people with epilepsy across the country to fulfill their potential.”

Purple Day at the farm!

Epilepsy is a serious debilitating disorder of the body’s nervous system causing symptoms such as paralysis, muscle weakness and seizures.  It affects around one child in every primary school and five in every secondary school.   Around 6,000 young people will experience communication, learning or behaviour problems. In some cases they will also have a significantly higher mortality rate.

The Children’s ISA is the main My Purple Pledge sponsor for 2012, with the first commercial partner being EasyLink UK, which provides epilepsy seizure monitors. 

Jack P. Shepherd

Please visit www.mypurplepledge.com for more information or follow My Purple Pledge on Twitter @purplepledge. 

For further information, please contact:

• Sara Willcocks on telephone: 01342 831245. Email:swillcocks@youngepilepsy.org.uk
• John Lavabre on telephone: 01342 831501.  Email: jlavabre@youngepilepsy.org.uk
  
  

About My Purple Pledge:  My Purple Pledge is a Young Epilepsy, celebrity-backed fundraising campaign that’s encouraging people to pledge purple and help change the lives of young people living with epilepsy and related disabilities/learning difficulties.  It is running in the weeks around International Purple Day (26 March).  About Purple Day: Purple Day for Epilepsy (Purple Day) is held each year on March 26 and is dedicated to raising awareness about epilepsy by reducing stigma and empowering individuals living with epilepsy to take action in their communities. It was founded in 2008 by nine-year-old Cassidy Megan of Nova Scotia and named after the internationally recognised colour for epilepsy, lavender.  Purple Day was launched internationally in 2009. 

About Young Epilepsy:

Young Epilepsy is a national charity for children and young people aged 5 to 25 with epilepsy and other neurological conditions. Young Epilepsy works in partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust and the University College London’s Institute of Child Health. It campaigns for improved epilepsy services for children and young people through its Champions for Childhood Epilepsy Campaign.

 Young Epilepsy’s headquarters in Lingfield, Surrey includes residential and day provision at St Piers School and Further Education College. Also on the site is the award winning Neville Childhood Epilepsy Centre, which hosts a range of diagnostic, assessment and rehabilitation services, along with the Childhood Epilepsy Information Service (helpline 01342 831342 Mon-Fri 9am-1pm) and a SureStart Children’s Centre for all local families. For more information, see www.youngepilepsy.org.uk.

Young Epilepsy also provides a range of epilepsy training for schools plus health, medical and social care professionals. Further information about training can be found on its website.  

Facts and stats

• Epilepsy is the most common serious childhood neurological condition. There are 60,000 children and young people under the age of 18, and 112,000 under the age of 25, living with epilepsy in the UK.

• Around one in ten (6,000) experience severe communication, learning or behaviour problems due to their epilepsy.
•  On average there is a child with epilepsy in every primary school and five in every secondary school.
• There are around 600,000 people in the UK diagnosed with epilepsy. That’s about one in every 131 people. There are around 50 million people with epilepsy in the world. Around 75 people are diagnosed with epilepsy every day.

About epilepsy:

·       Epilepsy is a neurological condition - which means it affects the brain.

·       Epilepsy is described as the tendency to have seizures. Epilepsy is only diagnosed after the person has had more than one seizure.

·       Seizures are sometimes called ‘fits’ or ‘attacks’. Seizures happen when there is a sudden interruption in the way the brain normally works.