Cassidy Megan

Her name is Cassidy Megan, she is 24 Years old from Nova Scotia, Canada. She is the founder of Purple Day. Purple Day is an epilepsy awareness day that is recognized and celebrated globally every year on March 26th. Cassidy founded Purple Day in 2008 due to her own struggles with epilepsy. She wanted to find others in the world who had epilepsy, and let them know that they don’t have to feel scared and afraid like she did and wanted to let them know that they are not alone in their journey. She also wants to teach those without epilepsy to not be afraid and how to help someone if they seen them having a seizure.

Over the years, working on Purple Day and with epilepsy advocacy, Cassidy has had the honour of speaking across the globe both virtually and in person at various organizations, hospitals, schools, universities, epilepsy associations, conferences, webinars and events. All of this has given her the opportunity to connect with the epilepsy community around the world on a personal level, as well as on a professional level. She has been able to learn from them and their experiences on how to better help educate the world and the public on epilepsy, so that if they encounter someone having a seizure they’ll know the correct way to help them.

Cassidy has spoken in person in places such as six cities in Japan, five states in India, various places within the United States and Canada. She has participated in virtual events, IG Lives, conferences and webinars with organizations, chapters of the IBE and ILAE and medical professionals in places like Brazil, Australia, Africa, Ukraine, Korea, UK, as well places across the USA, Canada and more. Cassidy is grateful for all of these experiences, and she has been able to see the different ways in how each place treats epilepsy, both medically and in society. Having seen this has shown her just why epilepsy awareness is so important and how much more awareness there is to be done.

Cassidy also has a YouTube channel were she posts a podcast called Unmasked with Cassidy Megan. In this podcast she interviews those living with epilepsy as well as professionals in the epilepsy field covering topics such EEGS, Keto diet, VNS, memory, mental health and more.

Cassidy also started a campaign #ImNotEpilepsy, where she has photos of individuals with the hashtag #ImNotEpilepsy I’m (insert name) and a small bio of the person to showcase that they are more then their epilepsy.

During COVID Cassidy has seen the need in the epilepsy community to connect in such hard times of even more isolation. She listened to the voices in the epilepsy community around the world and took the initiative and started a weekly live, on both the Purple day Facebook page and Instagram account. Her goal was to bring the epilepsy community together and help ease the isolation being felt.

Cassidy sits on committees with her local epilepsy agency, The Epilepsy Association of the Maritime and works closely with the Canadian Epilepsy Alliance. She recently was a member of the ICHOM (International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement) Epilepsy Working Group.

She is a member of The IBE Global Youth Team and will be attending and participating at the 35 Epilepsy Congress in Sept 2023 in Ireland as a representative of the IBE Global Youth Team. Specific details to follow.

Cassidy’s media platforms are:

• LinkedIn – Cassidy Megan – Founder – Purple Day | LinkedIn
• Website – www.purpleday.org
• Facebook – www.facebook.com/PurpleDayforEpilepsy/
• Instagram www.instagram.com/purpledaymarch26/ @purpledaymarch26
• Twitter – www.twitter.com/purpleday
• YouTube – PURPLEDAYdotORG – YouTube