Facial Palsy Awareness Week takes place from 1-7 March and is a great opportunity to start conversations about Facial Palsy and highlight issues associated with the condition to the general public, medical professionals, and the government.
Awareness Week 2026 – One More Thing
If you live with facial palsy, you know it’s rarely just one thing.
It’s the eye that won’t close and the difficulty eating and the exhaustion. It’s the way people look at you and the things they say and the things they don’t say. It’s managing appointments, emotions, work, relationships, all while trying to explain something most people don’t understand.
For this year’s Facial Palsy Awareness Week, we’re inviting the facial palsy community to share one thing you wish others understood about living with facial palsy, while showing how quickly those things can stack up.
The Hidden Impact Survey
Our recent ‘Hidden Impact’ survey has shown that Facial Palsy affects far more than appearance, revealing the cumulative emotional, social, and practical burden that is often invisible and underestimated.
When asked whether the various difficulties connected to Facial Palsy add up and become overwhelming, 98% of UK respondents agreed.
These findings underline the central message of Facial Palsy Awareness Week 2026: it is not one thing alone, but the accumulation of many visible and invisible challenges that makes living with Facial Palsy so difficult – and why better understanding, support, and services are urgently needed.
Share Your ‘One More Thing’
What’s the one thing you wish people knew?
It might be something small that others never notice. It might be something heavy that you carry every day.
You could share a misunderstanding you deal with again and again, a daily challenge that drains your energy, the emotional or social impact people don’t see or one simple thing that would make life easier if others understood it.
Share in whatever way feels safest and most comfortable for you:
- Send us a short video or reel (or share one on your own channels and tag @FacialPalsyUK)
- Send us a photo with a caption
- Email a written post or quote to info@facialpalsy.org.uk
There’s no right way to do this. Every story matters.
The ‘One More Thing’ Face Stack Challenge
The Face Stack Challenge is a simple way to visually represent what many of us live with every day – how quickly the challenges of facial palsy can pile up until it feels like one thing too many.
How the Challenge Works
- Set a 60‑second timer
- Film yourself (in portrait mode) stacking safe, lightweight household objects (like tissues, cotton pads, paper cups) on your face or head*
- Stop when they fall or the time runs out
- Share how many items you stacked and the one thing you want people to understand about facial palsy
- Tag @FacialPalsyUK and nominate three friends to join in
- Donate by text if you can and share the text to donate information:Text FACE 5 to 70085 to donate £5
Each text costs the donation amount plus two standard network rate messages. Donations are added to your phone bill or taken from available credit. You can donate any whole‑pound amount from £1 to £20.
*Please look after yourself: avoid the eye area if you can’t blink fully, and stop if anything feels uncomfortable.
Free Schools Pack for Your Child’s School 📚
To help children feel understood and included beyond Awareness Week, we’re offering a free schools pack for your child’s school (suitable for EYFS, KS1 and KS2).
Each pack includes:
- A hardback copy of our children’s book, When Teddy Lost His Smile
- Age-appropriate resources to help teachers and pupils understand facial palsy
- Practical guidance to support inclusion, kindness and open conversations in the classroom
It’s a lovely way to raise awareness at school and help classmates understand facial palsy in a gentle, positive way.
Join the Conversation on Social Media
By sharing one more thing, you’re helping others understand and reminding everyone in this community that they are not alone. Be sure to follow us on social media where we’ll be posting lots throughout the week that you can share and interact with.
Please use the following hashtags when you share:
- #OneMoreThing
- #FPAW
- #FacialPalsyAwarenessWeek
For the challenge:
- #FaceStackChallenge
Every post helps another person feel seen.
Hold an Awareness Event or Fundraiser
Holding a local event at your work, school or in your community is a great way to raise awareness of Facial Palsy. From bake sales and pyjama days to marathons and VIP parties, there are lots of great ideas on our website and our Fundraising Pack is full of useful information to help you plan your event.
Fundraising Ideas
Download our Fundraising Pack
If you’d like to include a talk about Facial Palsy in your event, you can use our ready-made Powerpoint presentation to help get your points across.
Face UP! Speak Out Presentation
Donate by Text (Optional)
If you’re able to, you can support Facial Palsy Awareness Week by donating:
Text FACE 5 to 70085 to donate £5
Each text costs the donation amount plus two standard network rate messages. Donations are added to your phone bill or taken from available credit. You can donate any whole‑pound amount from £1 to £20.
No pressure – sharing your voice matters just as much.
Download our Campaign Materials
We have a full range of resources you can use to get involved with the One More Thing campaign online from ready made social posts, Zoom/Teams backgrounds, email footers, profile picture frames and more.
Facial Palsy Awareness Week History
Facial Palsy Awareness Week first launched in March 2015, at the suggestion of volunteer Kay Turner.
Previous Campaigns:
- #PageNotFound (2025) – Facial Palsy UK set ourselves a mission – to get Facial Palsy on the NHS patient information websites for all UK nations. We believe that having information about Facial Palsy (not just Bell’s Palsy) on the four NHS websites will help to improve knowledge of the condition for patients, so they are not left feeling in the dark. It would also help to reduce misdiagnosis of conditions such as Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, Lyme Disease, tumours and cancers, as patients could be made aware of any symptoms that require further investigation. The campaign promoted the stories of people with Facial Palsy who have been misdiagnosed, misinformed, and misunderstood, to demonstrate the need for more consistent information and treatment.
- #RecognisingFacialPalsy (2024) – Our vision is a society where facial palsy is widely recognised and every person in the UK affected can access the information, treatment and support they need. We want the condition to be recognised by health professionals and the general public and for those with the condition to be treated with the understanding and compassion they deserve. Our theme for 2024 was about recognising facial palsy.
- #TreatMeRight (2023) – Our theme for 2023 was ‘Treat Me Right’ and our aim was to raise awareness of how challenging it can be for people with Facial Palsy to access the correct treatment due to lack of knowledge, services and funding, and the physical and mental impact this can have. We conducted a survey on NHS treatment and shared the results throughout the week on social media to raise awareness about the lack of services for people with the condition. We also featured videos, images and stories from members of our community about their treatment experiences, and London’s Tower 42 and Liverpool’s Radio Tower were lit up in our honour.
- #TheLittleThings (2022) – We highlighted all the ‘Little Things’ that people with facial palsy have to deal with on a daily basis and how they can add up to so much more. The cornerstone of this campaign was our series of Little Things Videos in which members of our community spoke about the little things that affected their daily lives. Another highlight was having our logo up in lights on one of the tallest buildings in London – Tower 42.
- #FaceMyDay (2021) – We raised awareness of the psychological and physical effects of facial palsy. This included launching a Facial Palsy Quiz, the publication of Recommendations for supporting the psychological well-being of children and adults with facial palsy , our first Facebook Live with facial therapist Catriona Neville, and a new website page helping people affected by facial palsy seek a referral to a specialist.
- #FaceUP (2020) – We wanted NHS funders and decision makers to Face UP! to the consequences of poor care for this patient group, i.e. delayed diagnosis, misdiagnosis, permanent facial disability and psychological impact. People shared their stories and we held our first major fundraising event on 29 February.
- #FaceMyDay (2019) – We highlighted the difficulties people with facial palsy have accessing health care, the psychological impact of facial palsy and what it is like living with facial palsy. We created an animation called ‘Chloe’s Day‘
- #InYourFace (2018) – We pushed the message that this condition affects function of the face and should not be dismissed as cosmetic. It’s about what is happening ‘in’ your face, which is not always what others can see. People painted numbers on their faces that represented facts about their condition and took selfies with posters explaining the number. We raised awareness in the media and published the results of a comprehensive survey about Ramsay Hunt syndrome.
- #ShareMyHappy (2017) – People raised awareness of the fact that happiness isn’t always shown on your face. They also thanked those that support us during our facial palsy journeys.
- #StraightFace (2016) – we highlighted what so many take for granted, the ability to laugh unreservedly and to express ourselves using our faces.
- #FaceMyDay (2015) – Friends and family joined in by shaving half their beard off or wearing half-makeup during the week. They shared selfies on social media to raise awareness. The nail art community painted fingernails to raise awareness and shared on Instagram.
- #FaceANewDay (2015) – people took part in dawn walks to raise awareness of facial palsy and literally ‘face a new day’.
FPUK Associated Articles:
Last reviewed: 28-10-2024 || Next review due: 06-01-2025