Sept. 4 marked the one year anniversary of the passing of Alyssa Josephine O’Neil, a student at Penn State Behrend. She was diagnosed with epilepsy and unexpectedly died of a seizure.
In this tragedy, Alyssa was remembered with a purple hashtag that started at Starbucks and made its way across the world. The purple is linked to epilepsy as its awareness color, and the hashtag were Alyssa’s initials: ajo.
A “pay-it-forward” movement started with pumpkin spice lattes. On Alyssa’s memorial Facebook page, her father presents a video explaining how she had requested the Starbucks fall flavor the night before she passed.
The Epilepsy Network is a worldwide community of people with epilepsy, family and friends, uniting to talk about their experiences, learn information about epilepsy, ask questions and so much more! Don’t let epilepsy defeat you, let it inspire you!
