Purple Day: Epilepsy awareness events at University of Birmingham campus!

But how much do you know about epilepsy and would you be able to spot and help someone having a seizure? Purple Day is the international day for epilepsy awareness and this year, we invite you, your friends and family to take part in our free community awareness raising activities at University of Birmingham.

Kicking things off will be the University’s clocktower, Old Joe! Old Joe will light up purple each night between March 24-26th. Just like Old Joe, you can also support us to spread the word by tweeting your own epilepsy awareness message – tag @SMQB_UoB on Twitter and use hashtag #PurpleDay for a retweet from our team! Or, even easier, click to retweet one of our existing tweets!

This is a free mini training course (90 mins) to increase your awareness and confidence in being able to support someone who may be having a seizure. You will learn a little bit more about epilepsy, whilst also developing important practical skills that may help others and even save lives. This training is being run with the support of lived experience advocate Simon Privett from charity Epilepsy Action and certificates of participation are available. The MedSoc student society are also supporting us with event promotion and we encourage everyone to wear a purple accessory, whether it's a t-shirt, hat, nail polish or something else!

Join us for an afternoon of testimonials and interactive discussion as we bring together people with epilepsy, charities and scientists at Birmingham working in this area. Artist Karina Thompson will also be there to show some of her latest work inspired by epilepsy research and in collaboration with SMQB. Discover more about what living with epilepsy is really like and learn about the latest research and developments underway. This informal and relaxed event will allow plenty of time for audience questions and meeting others. After talks, refreshments will be served in the Muirhead Tower Hospitality Suite where you can also grab a photo of Old Joe lit up purple!

Speakers include

• Professor John Terry – SMQB Director, working on diagnosis and management of epilepsy
• Anna Norton - Epilepsy Research UK (supported by colleagues Caoimhe Bennett & Becca Mee)
• Sarah Tittensor - Clinical Nurse Specialist in Epilepsy for Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull Hospitals
• Rhiannon Cole - lived experience advocate
• Kasam Parkar - lived experience advocate
• Professor Andy Bagshaw – working on epilepsy in children and cognition
• Professor Shakila Thangaratinam & Dr John Allotey – working on epilepsy in pregnancy care
• Simon Privett - lived experience advocate
• Dr Isabella Marinelli - mathematical models for modelling seizure
• Dr Wes Woldman - application of models to diagnosis and prognosis
• Dr Daniel Galvis - application of models to epilepsy surgery
• Karina Thomspon - artist working on epilepsy project

EVERYONE IS WELCOME to participate in these two events, you do not need to be a staff or student at the university, so feel free to share details with anyone interested. You can sign up for one or both of the events mentioned above using the tick box question during Eventbrite registration, but please do register so we know how many people to expect! We particularly welcome people affected by epilepsy either directly or indirectly. All events have been organised by the Centre for Systems Modelling and Quantitative Biomedicine (SMQB) at University of Birmingham. If you have any questions, please contact us on [email protected].

GETTING THERE: For information on how to get to University of Birmingham campus, visit this page. The campus map, found here shows the buildings on site and our events are taking place in R21 in Red (Muirhead Tower, in room 417).

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

University of Birmingham, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

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