Support Us World Bipolar Day World Bipolar Day 2024 World Bipolar Day is celebrated each year on 30 March, the birthday of Vincent Van Gogh, who was diagnosed with bipolar after he died. The vision of World Bipolar Day is to encourage understanding about what bipolar is – and isn’t – and to banish stigma from the face of the planet. Each year Bipolar UK holds its annual conference and runs a number of activities to raise awareness and raise funds to celebrate this day. World Bipolar Day 2024 activities 1. Sign up for our 2024 conference 2. Take part in 'Pole to Pole... to Pole' 3. North East Rotary walks for bipolar, 20-30 March 2024 4. Rotary and Bipolar UK 5. Bipolar UK Mood Tracker app news! 6. More ways to get involved 7. What we did last year 1. Sign up for our 2024 main conference event! Sign up now! Last year, our annual World Bipolar Day conference on 30 March was attended by more than 2,370 people! This year, we’re planning an even bigger, week-long series of online events, during World Bipolar Week, Tuesday 26 March - Tuesday 2 April, 2024. Visit our Conference 2024 page for all the information you need for World Bipolar Week, Tuesday 26 March - Tuesday 2 April, 2024 World Bipolar Week Events 2024 2. Take part in 'Pole to Pole... to Pole' 30 April 2023 - 30 March 2024 Six months ahead of schedule, we collectively travelled 20,004 km – from the North to the South Pole! We are now aiming to make a full lap of the globe before World Bipolar Day on 30 March. Will you help us to travel 40,008km - from the North Pole to the South Pole, and then back up to the North Pole again? Take a look at where we've been! Help us to get back up to the North Pole and reach our donation target of £10,000. Join Bipolar UK and Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland in our epic collective challenge to run, walk, swim, cycle, scoot or paddle 40,008km. Together, let's get outside and get active while raising awareness and much-needed funds for Bipolar UK. You can sign up as an individual or as a local team/club. Every single km will help us achieve this monumental challenge. Do it your way! You can: count every step or km over a set period of time organise a 9.5km* group walk on a special day set yourself/your team a unique challenge *To represent the average number of years it takes for someone to get a diagnosis of bipolar Just remember to log your km to help us cross the globe before World Bipolar Day 2024 (Saturday 30 March). You can track your progress automatically if you link up through Strava, or manually input your progress as you complete challenges and distances. It costs £3 (admin fee) to join this event - but please do encourage your friends and family to donate through your fundraising page to support your efforts! Together, we can make it from Pole to Pole! Register here For more information or any support, email [email protected] and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Good luck, and happy fundraising! Watch Bipolar UK's CEO, Simon Kitchen walk 9.5km along Hadrian's Wall to launch the 'Pole to Pole' challenge Get some local publicity about your Pole to Pole challenge Instructions: Download this press release template Include your name and location in the indicated sections. Include a quote from you about what you are doing for the challenge, how many kilometres your challenge will be and why you are doing the challenge – this could be that you live with bipolar and would like to raise awareness of the condition, you are doing it because a friend or relative has bipolar or to mark a significant anniversary. You can add as much detail to this as you like, but please try to keep the word count to 200-300 words maximum. Email your completed press release to your local newspaper’s news desk. You can usually find details for these on their website but may need to call them to ask. Please include a relevant photo as a JPG file alongside the press release. If you need any support with this, please email [email protected] and we will be pleased to help. 3. North East Rotary walks for bipolar, 20-30 March 2024 North East Rotary clubs and Bipolar UK are joining forces to raise awareness, vital funds and support for people affected by bipolar. Simon Kitchen, CEO of Bipolar UK, will be joined by Jeremy Clark, Bipolar UK trustee, and Jeremy’s wife, Daisy, to walk the distance of 9.5 half marathons (199.5kms) over 9.5 days (with one rest day). The 9.5 represents the years it takes to get a diagnosis. They are walking on behalf of Rotary’s caused-based club, the Rotary Bipolar eClub, of which both Simon and Jeremy are members. The trio will set off from Durham on Wednesday 20th March, on St. Cuthbert’s Day and arrive at the finish line in Holy Island on Saturday 30th March to mark World Bipolar Day. Keep checking this page and our social media from 20 March, to follow Simon, Jeremy and Daisy's walk! Support Simon, Jeremy and Daisy here 4. Rotary and Bipolar UK - Bipolar UK needs your support! Rotary clubs across the UK are coming together this World Bipolar Week (24 March – 2 April 2024) to help increase understanding of the condition and awareness of the support that’s available. Many clubs have already signed up to host stalls in shopping centres, and to take part in awareness-raising walks. Can you join us to help us reach and support more people affected by bipolar this World Bipolar Week? To get involved or find out more please email Peter McLoughlin, Senior Partnership Officer at [email protected] or click here 5. Bipolar UK Mood Tracker app news! After months of development with our Ambassador and app developer, Andrew Thompson, together with our friends at Bipolarité France, Bipolar UK are launching a French version of the Mood Tracker app on World Bipolar Day, 30 March 2024. With more than 450 million French speakers worldwide, our wish is that the app will help even more people living with bipolar to track their mood and sleep patterns and live well with bipolar. Download our Mood Tracker app 6. More ways to get involved Encourage understanding of the condition by watching and sharing our free eLearning course Share our posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #letstalkbipolar Donate - £10 allows us to support somebody via our eCommunity Fundraise - there are lots of ways to get involved 7. Conference 2023 Last World Bipolar Day in 2023, the Bipolar UK community came together for our free annual online conference. Watch the highlights here Our brilliant line-up of speakers included: Conference host, Bipolar UK ambassador and presenter of Channel 4’s ‘A Place in the Sun’, Leah Charles-King Bipolar UK CEO Simon Kitchen who gave a charity update and explained what to do if you think you may have bipolar – and how to overcome the obstacles to diagnosis 4 world-leading experts and people with lived experience on how to manage the bipolar symptoms that no-one talks about, including hypersexual behaviour, overspending, paranoia and disrupted sleep Bipolar UK Director of Research Dr Tania Gergel and international academics on the latest bipolar-related research TV presenter Nadia Sawalha, her husband Mark Adderley and psychiatrist Dr Nick Prior in conversation about how a diagnosis of bipolar can impact relationships and family life Bafta-winning creator of BBC3’s ‘In My Skin’ Kayleigh Llewellyn, author and environmental activist Mya-Rose Craig (AKA ‘Birdgirl’) and Bipolar UK podcast host and ambassador Emma Belle in conversation about parenting with bipolar Boxer Frank Bruno and mental health campaigner Alastair Campbell in conversation about how to live well with bipolar – plus there’ll be a bit of boxing chat! Subscribe to our eNewsletter to be the first to know about our World Bipolar Day conference 2024! Last updated: 7 March 2024 Manage Cookie Preferences