Our 10th annual World Encephalitis Day on the 22nd February 2023 was perhaps our most complex to date - involving a media campaign which reached 111 million people and covered several countries, including India, the Philippines, Australia, North America, the UK, Germany and Australia.

It began with the publication of two new pieces of ground-breaking research investigating the mental health impact of encephalitis and included our spokespeople and members of our community who spoke about their experiences.

By talking about this to the media, our aim was to shine a light on the fact that these mental health issues can be preventable and, in most cases, highly treatable.

This research - among other World Encephalitis Day 2023 articles and features - can be found here

BrainWalk

Throughout February, 431 people took part in our BrainWalk step challenge - walking or running as many steps as possible throughout the month.

By the end of the month, they had walked 65 million steps and raised more than £40,000.

Landmarks

In 2023, we were on a mission to light up landmarks red for World Encephalitis Day. In the end, we smashed our pre-campaign targets and ended up with 249 landmarks in 29 countries going #Red4WED, including Piccadilly Circus in London where we had a gathering of supporters.

#Red4WED

The centrepiece of World Encephalitis Day has always been our supporters who every year join us in wearing red and sharing their #Red4WED messages of awareness on their social media channels. It is certainly a wonderful sight to see!

Stories

On World Encephalitis Day, it is always important to let the general public know about the impact that encephalitis can have personally and among friends and family. In Perth, Australia, Rachael's story was particularly brilliant.

 

Final figures

World Encephalitis Day 2023 was an outstanding success - certainly our most ambitious and widest reaching among the public. Enjoy some of the key statistics from our wonderful awareness day!