Magpie and Epilepsy Action have won Not-for-Profit Campaign of the Year at the 2026 Prolific North Champions Awards for If I Told You, an epilepsy awareness campaign designed to challenge stigma, build empathy and start more open conversations about epilepsy.
The award recognises the impact of the 2025 campaign, which reached nearly two million people online, with more than half of its audience aged 18–25.
The win celebrates what can happen when behavioural insight, creative storytelling and lived experience come together to help people see things differently.
Using storytelling to challenge stigma around epilepsy
If I Told You was created to raise awareness of how epilepsy can affect all aspects of life, from friendships and dating to relationships and opportunities at work.
Rather than focusing on epilepsy alone as a medical condition, the campaign explored the everyday experiences and common challenges that can shape how people living with epilepsy are seen and understood.
Through authentic storytelling, the campaign encouraged audiences to reflect on how they might react to finding out someone has epilepsy, opening the door to more understanding, inclusive conversations.
The aim was to move beyond awareness and help shift attitudes, making the world a more inclusive place for people with epilepsy.
An award-winning behaviour change campaign
The Prolific North Champions Awards recognise organisations, teams and individuals making their mark across the North’s creative and digital sectors.
The judges praised If I Told You as:
A standout behaviour-change campaign that combines strong insight, creative innovation and measurable impact. The strategy is particularly impressive in its use of behavioural principles to shift perceptions and normalise responses to epilepsy, moving beyond awareness into genuine attitudinal change.
Judges collective feedback
This recognition reflects the campaign’s ambition to do more than share information. By connecting with audiences through relatable stories, it aimed to encourage empathy and challenge assumptions.
Reaching new audiences and building empathy
For Epilepsy Action, reaching new audiences was an important part of the campaign’s ambition.
Jon Eaton, director of communications and digital engagement at Epilepsy Action, said:
When we set out to create a world without limits, we knew that reaching new audiences on a budget was going to be central to that plan. This campaign reached nearly two million people online with over half of them between 18 and 25. The response itself on social media and this award tells us that we are telling resonant stories in new spaces. The campaign builds empathy by talking about common issues we all face. Epilepsy massively impacts relationships, romance and job prospects. Work like this takes us closer to a world where people with epilepsy can be confident that they are seen and understood.
Jon Eaton
Celebrating the power of authentic storytelling
Rose Mountague, Magpie’s Creative and Digital Director, said:
I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved together. This campaign is a testament to the power of authentic storytelling – which is exactly what we’re about at Magpie. A huge thank you to everyone who shared their lived experiences to shape this project, and to the Epilepsy Action team for championing our creative vision and helping us to do it justice. The response from both the public and the epilepsy community has been so rewarding to hear, but having the campaign’s impact recognised with this award truly tops it all off.
Rose Mountague
We’re especially grateful to everyone who shared their experiences and helped shape the campaign, and to Epilepsy Action for the collaboration and shared commitment to making a difference.
Further recognition for If I Told You
The Prolific North Champions Awards win adds to previous recognition for If I Told You, which was also recognised at the Smiley Charity Film Awards.
The campaign has also been shortlisted in the Healthcare category of the 2026 Prolific North Creative Awards.
Together, these achievements celebrate a campaign built around a simple but powerful idea: that better understanding starts with listening, and that stories can help us see one another differently.
Watch the If I Told You campaign and discover more about how Magpie and Epilepsy Action brought it to life.