SUDEP Awareness Day campaign goes global

Over 120 organisations joined us in spreading awareness on SUDEP Awareness Day on 23 October, 2015. This year we launched a special website which has been accessed from more than 85 countries.
 
SUDEP Awareness Day was created by SUDEP Action and is dedicated to raising awareness of Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy all around the world. The campaign is an annual event celebrated on 23 October.

This year, we also rolled out various campaign materials put together with epilepsy organisations from North America, Europe and Australia and with our partners on SUDEP –the Global Conversation. These included posters, a SUDEP infographic and social media covers which have been translated in to different languages with the help of supporting epilepsy organisations. On social media, the campaign was supported by more than 90 epilepsy organisations and groups from all around the world.
 
This year, we went with the theme ‘Are You SUDEP Savvy?’ to get people talking about SUDEP.  The SUDEP Awareness Day campaign encourages people with epilepsy to learn about SUDEP, their individual risk and ways in which they can manage their condition in order to reduce their risk. It also aims to highlight the need for more research into SUDEP to help save lives and honours the lives of all those who have died from the condition. 

Charity supporters held various awareness and fundraising events. These included cake sales, school awareness talks and an awareness walk. Some visited their local GPs to hand out SUDEP leaflets and posters while others displayed the campaign posters in their workplace. The SUDEP Action team held a home-made preserve/cake sale and tombola in Wantage town centre, in Oxfordshire. 

We thank you all for helping to make this year’s SUDEP Awareness Day a huge success. A huge thank you to all the organisations that registered and helped spread the word online.  Thank you to everyone who wore purple or orange in support of the awareness day. To those who shared their SUDEP or epilepsy story either on the campaign site or in the media and shared photos in memory of their  loved ones on Facebook or Twitter. We are grateful to everyone who organised or went to a SUDEP awareness-raising event and to all those who donated or helped raise funds.

While we remember those who have died from SUDEP on SUDEP Awareness Day, we also remember the people who have died from other epilepsy related causes. While SUDEP Awareness Day is intended to help shine a light on SUDEP to help raise awareness of the risk of it, we must not forget the pain of grief felt by all those bereaved.