Tara, who suffers from Dravet syndrome, a life-threatening form of epilepsy, was head to toe in purple alongside her schoolmates.

Dravet syndrome has no known cure and it’s a condition that means Tara can have up to 100 seizures a day. Research into the disease is limited because it’s so rare.

Tara and her mother Cheri organised yesterday’s school fundraiser and were hopeful the money collected would go some way towards helping the more than 50 million people around the world affected by epilepsy.

Cheri said her daughter had good days and bad, but was happiest at school.

“She’s always going to have the condition, nothing’s going to change. It’s something you just take one day at a time but she’s been fairly stable recently,” she said.

‘‘Stable’’ for Tara means she has between three and four seizures a day, with some rendering her unconscious.

At school, Tara wears a helmet to protect her head.

She also has an assistance dog called Addy who is trained to respond to her seizures and bark for attention.

Cheri said it was always going to be a battle to maintain Tara’s disease but the family had great support.

She said the teachers at Langley Primary School had been a great help.

“The school’s doing everything they possibly can to help her, it’s a wonderful little community school. The teachers are all trained and so are the other students; they all want to know as much as they can about Tara’s seizures.

“Having the purple day fundraiser is another great event that will hopefully help raise awareness to bring a cure.”