Re Purple Day

Dear Friends and purple day supports,

I am writing on behalf of Maegan Cassidy, the founder of Purple Day International. A name change has been requested by the International Body responsible for epilepsy awareness as the name is cultural offensive in some countries. However it creates a huge up heavel for the purple day organisation in terms of re banding and marketing. As an organisation with no funding supported by individuals such as myself this is a cost and time commitment we can not resource without considerable lost time awareness needed to rebuild our profile. I am joining Casidy in asking you to contact your local member of the international Bureau of Epilepsy http://www.ibe-epilepsy.org/members-in-the-western-pacific-region/ and request the block a name change. Below is a copy of a letter I sent to me representative. You may adaptive to your circumstances.

Many thanks on behalf of Cassidy and myself

Debbie Chilton

My name is Debbie Chilton I have 45 years old and have participated in Purple Day for the last two years. I have notified a number of local disability support Agencies to the International Purple Day celebrations on March 26^th and thus raised awareness of the issues people with epilepsy face in the daily lives.

I know firsthand the discrimination and fear people with epilepsy face as I have suffered from epilepsy for 23 years. In 2012 I almost lost my life to the condition and was intimately for a period 3 months. Purple day has struggled to be established here in Australian and a name change world result in a significant time commitment of campaigners like myself to re establish the name. This time commitment is I believed better directed to public education and raising Purple Day’s Profile. We understand that ‘the colour purple’ is culturally offensive in some countries, however a name change would result in a serious upheaval in more countries, than countries which would benefit from a name change.

I am asking you to fight for us keeping the name Purple Day for March 26^th

Regards

Debbie Chilton

Ipswich Queensland Australia