Today is Purple Day, a day dedicated to increasing awareness about epilepsy worldwide.

Epilepsy affects over 50 million people around the globe including High River resident, Jeff Siffleden's Daughter; Zoe.

Zoe was diagnosed with epilepsy at just 11 months old.

Jeff says it has changed their lives immensely but they work around it, "my daughters story, her epilepsy is kind of a bi product of a genetic disorder she has but none of the less its still epilepsy. and the biggest thing I can say is you really try to find ways to not let it affect your day to day activities, you find ways to work around it."

Siffleden says Purple day is a great grassroots effort because it educates people and he believes with more knowledge people become less afraid.

"It's a day to raise awareness and I think a lot of people are afraid of what they don't know and I guess just raising awareness and getting more information out to people on what epilepsy actually is and how it works and how it affects people and what you can do to support people living with it and what not so I think it's a great day."


Zoe just recently underwent surgery to help with her epilepsy and Siffleden says they are hopeful for positive results.

To help raise awareness about the condition wear purple on March 26th, the city of Calgary will be participating by lighting the Calgary Tower, Telus Spark Center, and Langevin Bridge in purple.

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