November is Epilepsy Awareness Month.
Today, my emplo0yer offered us the opportunity to participate in a fundraiser jeans day to benefit epilepsy awareness and fund much needed research. And this is not the first time my employer supported epilepsy awareness. The organization to receive our donations collected today is the Purple Peace Foundation. The mission of the Foundation is to raise awareness about epilepsy and provide support to those living with or affected by epilepsy. Their goal is to raise funds to provide tools which may improve the quality of life for someone living with epilepsy, to support epilepsy research, and to increase awareness and education about epilepsy.
FACTS ABOUT EPILEPSY:
About 50,000 people die in the US each year from Epilepsy (prolonged seizures, SUDEP & seizure-related causes)
Just as a sense of scale . . .
♦ 39,520 die from breast cancer
♦ 15,000 die from prescription overdose
♦ 12,000 die from skin cancer
♦ 10,228 die in drunk driving accidents
Help spread the facts and raise epilepsy awareness!
[Sources: cdc.gov.cureepilepsy.org; breastcancer.org; madd.org; cancer.org]
Epilepsy is among the least understood of major chronic medical conditions.
- Epilepsy affects over 3 million Americans of all ages. This is more than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and Parkinson’s disease combined.
- Almost 500 new cases of epilepsy are diagnosed every day in the United States.
- 1 in 3 adults know someone with epilepsy.
- Epilepsy and seizure disorder are the same thing.
- There are between 20 and 30 different kinds of seizures.
- In our metropolitan area, up to 250,000 members may have recurrent seizures at some time during their lives.
- 1 in 10 people will have a single seizure.
- The biggest challenge for people with epilepsy is not the disorder itself but the myths, misconceptions and stigma that surround it!
Please join me in spreading awareness about epilepsy this month.
We’re very involved with epilepsy (I’m on the board of an organization called Epilepsy Therapy Project, which is about to be merged into the Epilepsy Foundation). It was great to read your post! More funding is needed for new therapies for this disease!