On July 22nd, in celebration of World Brain Day 2016, we asked you to get ‘under the umbrella’ for our Big Splash! Individuals, companies, institutions and organisations were encouraged to take a photo under an umbrella and share it to social media to raise awareness of the wide range of brain disorders. We were overwhelmed by the response.

People from around the world – including patients, carers, pharmaceutical companies, health professionals and more – came together and shared hundreds of images throughout the day on the various social media platforms; using the hashtag #UnderTheUmbrella.

A special Facebook Event page for the occasion was set up. 82 people joined the event, but more importantly, the posts shared reached an audience of 3,400 people.
Other organisations including Dystonia Europe and Fundazione Neuromed set up their own event pages.

In fact, Neuromed – a Mediterranean Neurological Institute and an Institute for research, hospitalization and health care specialising in diseases related to neurosurgery, neurology, neurorehabilitation – held a very special Under the Umbrella event on the day. Take a look at the photo album and watch the video below.

Companies such as Abbvie, Eirgen and Pfizer got involved with onsite photoshoots, whilst Medtronic encouraged all their national affiliates to participate – resulting in many photos from as far afield as Mexico!

Of course, we can’t name the hundreds of people and groups that could involved you can take a look at the social media pages if you’re interested to see who participated.

Below are some of the fantastic pictures shared to Instagram on the day:

We had fantastic support from the Twitter community, including some surprising faces amongst the hundreds of tweeters who got #UnderTheUmbrella.

Thank you so much to everyone who supported the Together Under the Umbrella campaign on World Brain Day. It was wonderful to see people from so many disease areas acting together. By continuing to work together we can maximise the visibility of brain disorders as a whole and ensure we can access the resources required to tackle the enormous burden these diseases pose.

The Together Under the Umbrella Campaign continues so there is still time to get involved. Keep taking and sharing your pictures! If your organisation is planning an event in the coming months why not hold it ‘Under the Umbrella’?