{"id":311,"date":"2020-03-18T10:05:42","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T10:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/sdn\/?p=311"},"modified":"2023-06-16T12:30:26","modified_gmt":"2023-06-16T12:30:26","slug":"purple-day-2020-international-epilepsy-awareness-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.ac.uk\/sdn\/2020\/03\/18\/purple-day-2020-international-epilepsy-awareness-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Purple Day 2020 – International Epilepsy Awareness Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Thursday 26<\/span>th<\/span> March is Purple Day, an international day to raise awareness of Epilepsy. <\/span>Epilepsy is a serious neurological condition that can affect anyone, at any age and from any walk of life. There are around 600,000 people in the UK living with Epilepsy, that\u2019s a similar figure to people living with autism.<\/p>\n

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Epilepsy is a condition which people often know very little about and it can still be a little bit of a taboo subject. Spark! is hoping to help change that at SHU by raising awareness of the condition and hopefully dispel some myths at the same time.<\/span><\/p>\n

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We had hoped to run a stall selling cakes, answering people\u2019s questions and informing people about the support services available to staff and students with Epilepsy and other disabilities on campus. However, under the current circumstances we decide to cancel this and move all our information online instead.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Epilepsy affects around one in every 100 people in the UK. Every day, 87 people are diagnosed.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Epilepsy is often thought of as something children are born with that they will eventually grow out of, however one in every four people newly diagnosed with epilepsy is over the age of 65.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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For some, seizures are life-threatening: 1,000 people die in the UK every year because of their epilepsy. As many as 400 of these deaths could be prevented. Around half of these 1,000 deaths are from sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), in which someone with epilepsy dies and no obvious cause of death can be found.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Deaths in people with epilepsy have increased by 70% and people with the condition now die on average eight years earlier than the rest of the population, according to\u00a0<\/span>new figures from Public Health England (PHE)<\/span><\/a>, published in February 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Only 52% of people with epilepsy in the UK are seizure free. It is estimated that with the right treatment, the majority of people with epilepsy (70%) could be seizure free.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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There are a lot of myths around about Epilepsy, can you spot the facts?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Fact or Myth<\/b><\/h2>\n

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