Facial Palsy Awareness Week is nearly here!

February 18, 2015

The very first Facial Palsy Awareness Week launches on 1 March and we’re delighted that people from around the world are getting involved!

About this year’s campaign – ‘Face a New Day’ (1-7 March 2015)

During our 2015 campaign we intend to highlight the social, physical and psychological consequences of living with facial paralysis. This is your opportunity to get involved and raise awareness. Use #FPAW on social media throughout the week to join in!

Get friends and family involved on social media by sharing their half make-up and half beard selfies to raise awareness. Facial palsy goes beyond looking different, but by sporting half beards or half make-up, we aim to start a dialogue about an often misunderstood condition that affects over 100,000 people in the UK.  Consider raising money for Facial Palsy UK too by getting people to sponsor you. Use #facemyday to spread the word. Find out more details on our website here. Promotional materials are available to download here.

Awareness in schools

Download our leaflet about ‘How your school can help’ here. You may want to involve your school in fundraising for the charity during the week or alternatively you could ask them to include education about facial differences in art, drama or English classes. See our leaflet or contact us for more ideas.

A message from our founder Charles Nduka

Teams at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead and the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle are throwing themselves into Facial Palsy Awareness Week with great enthusiam! With just two weeks to go we are growing our facial hair ready for the challenge ahead, it’s very itchy! I’m actually having two JustGiving pages, one for people to sponsor me to have half a beard and the second one is for those who want me to keep it for a further week. Whichever raises the most money by the end of the awareness week is the winner! Another fun angle is to link JustGiving up with DaretoDonate. Whether you raise funds or not, let’s see if we can light up social media with all your pictures of half beards and half makeup and make people think about what it feels like to live with a facial difference.

Events

Teams from Barclays Wealth (Glasgow) are taking part in a walk at 12pm at Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow on March 1st. If you are in the area look out for them in their Facial Palsy UK T-shirts and give them a cheer! Amanda Duncan is taking part in a 6 hour rowing challenge at the Palatine Leisure Centre in Blackpool on 7 March. Find out more about Mandy’s story here. Kay Turner is organising a music night at the Heritage Church in Preston on Friday 6 March. Footballers from Northampton Town Football Club are also showing their support by agreeing to be photographed in Facial Palsy UK T-shirts. These are just some of the events taking place, we know other people are also busy making plans, thank you everyone!

Social Media

Instagram – Keep an eye out for nail artists raising awareness of facial palsy throughout the week on Instagram. Follow us on Instagram.

Facebook – Volunteers Kay and Sherry have been busy working on a theme for status updates on Facebook throughout Awareness Week (1-7 March). Join our Event page on Facebook to be kept informed of latest updates.

Twitter – Don’t forget to share your #facemyday pictures with us so we can retweet!

We’re continually improving our donation facilities. Supporters can now set up Direct Debits and also donate by telephone. To find out more please visit the Donate section of our website or contact us on 0300 030 9333. We’re very grateful for all the financial support we receive.