World Stroke Day 2019

Note: This year’s main theme for SAFE’s campaigning work is Life After Stroke, the issues around it and how the stroke survivors and their families are coping with it. The campaign covers this year’s European Stroke Awareness Day in May and will culminate on October 29, for the World Stroke Day, when SAFE will announce the next big project.

The World Stroke Organisation‘s campaign is this year dedicated to Prevention. Please read below for more information and resources.

Don’t Be The One World Stroke Day Campaign Toolkit for Members and Partners

We are delighted to share the resources and tools for our members and partners to use in their preparation for World Stroke Day 2019. These resources are designed to enable you to develop locally bespoke versions of campaign materials to use in your communication with the public and stroke stakeholders.

The focus of the campaign this year is stroke risk and prevention. The latest analysis of the Global Burden of Disease shows that the lifetime risk of stroke for over-25s has increased and now stands at 1 in 4. The urgent need for action at individual and population level is only matched by the incredible potential for a huge reduction in stroke. While our efforts on World Stroke Day are largely directed towards raising public awareness of the steps we can all take to reduce our risk, the 2019 campaign is a key component of WSO’s strategic commitment to ‘Cut Stroke in Half’. You can read more about how the campaign and the wider initiative are linked in this Lancet editorial.

Key Campaign Tools

  • Campaign guide – outlines the broad approach, call to action and brand guidelines for Don’t Be The One.
  • Infographics – perfect for social media these highlighting the top ten risk factors for stroke as a group and individually. Also available this year is a World Stroke Campaign branded FAST infographic and an AF and Stroke infographic which was developed in partnership with colleagues at the World Heart Federation.
  • Patient information leaflets – each focused on a single risk factor, these can be translated and designed using the files provided to distribute in local communities.
  • Social media – a series of social media posts with suggested text and a Don’t be The One picture frame that people can add to their Facebook profile photos. Please follow @WStrokeCampaign on twitter and Facebook and be sure to use the campaign hashtag #DontBeTheOne  in your posts so that we can like and share.
  • Stroke Riskometer – a WSO endorsed and widely translated free mobile app that enables users to identify their individual stroke risk and take action to address it. We are asking our members to promote the Stroke Riskometer in their community by recruiting high profile individuals to share the link on social media tagging four friends with the hashtag #DontBeTheOne. If you ask your celebrity ambassadors or key social media influencers to do one thing to support World Stroke Day this year, please ask them to do this!
  • Digital Banners – to highlight the campaign on websites and e-mail footers.
  • Event materials – event posters, pop-up banner, campaign wristbands and a flag.
  • Purchased photo stock – to help you develop high quality visual materials that help you to reflect your local audience as part of the global campaign.

All public resources are currently out for translation and will be available to download from in Arabic, English, French, German, Hindi, Portuguese and Spanish soon. If you would like the opportunity to facilitate translation into an additional language for hosting on the site, that would be most welcome. Please contact campaigns@world-stroke.org so that we can coordinate efforts.

New World Stroke Campaign website

As part of the launch of the World Stroke Day 2019 campaign we are pleased to announce that the all new World Stroke Campaign website is now live. Please take a look and be sure to register your plans for World Stroke Day events and activities on the Global Map of Action. Registering your event provides a very visible sign of a world united to tackle stroke. As you will see the site provides organised content around key campaign themes of prevention, treatment and life after stroke.  These reflect the year round concerns of the World Stroke Campaign and help you our members to access resources and key messages to support your awareness and advocacy work in these areas.  The resources on the site will continue to develop and grow to reflect emerging campaigns, resources to support communication on key issues and advocacy engagement.

World Stroke Day Around The World Relay

Starting in the Philippines on 6th October a number of WSO members are organizing public sporting events and literally carry the Don’t Be The One prevention message around the world. Flying a campaign flag from country to country, these events are a great opportunity for members to engage local communities, highlight stroke, share patient information and attract media attention for key stroke prevention messages. Events are currently scheduled across South East Asia, Africa and Latin America. If your organization has a sporting event planned for the run up to World Stroke Day and would like to be included in the Round the World Relay please contact Sarah.Belson@stroke.org and cc campaigns@world-stroke.org.