#ALSicebucketchallenge

So you all must be aware of the ice bucket challenge that is going around on social media. However, whilst it’s great watching celebrities get their kit off for the challenge, it’s important to understand the cause behind it.

The challenge has been going on for a while, but only went viral after college baseball player Pete Frates, who was diagnosed with ALS 2 years ago, decided to start his own campaign. ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is the most common form of motor neurone disease, which causes muscle weakness and loss of voluntary movement due to the degeneration of upper and lower motoneurons (neurons that control movement). It has a prevalence of 5/100,000 people, with an average onset of around age 55, and death usually occurring a few years later due to respiratory failure. So the idea of the ice bucket challenge is that pouring freezing cold water over yourself gives a numbing sensation and you are not able to move or breathe for a few seconds – mimicking the symptoms of ALS. It is a rare and seriously debilitating disease with no clear cause or effective treatment. However, charities for ALS are seriously underfunded, but this global internet sensation has prompted donations reaching $50 million to the ALS association (www.alsa.org). People may criticise the ice bucket challenge for being an excuse to look altruistic or show off your wet body, but there is no denying that it has helped to raise a lot of money for the charity, as well as awareness for the disease.

However, Macmillan started using the hashtag, and consequently, people in the UK are donating to them instead. Although the #nomakeupselfie had no relevance to cancer, it does not make it ok that Macmillan cancer charity has been using the craze to encourage donations when the point of the challenge is to give an insight into ALS. Cancer is a hugely funded charity, understandably, as everyone knows someone who has had cancer or has been effected by cancer. Donating to any charity is a wonderful thing to do, but Macmillan has taken away the importance and spread of awareness for other diseases such as ALS.

This video is what the #ALSicebucketchallenge is really all about.

And now my top 5 celebrity videos:

5. Lady Gaga - ....what?

4. Justin Timberlake

3. David Beckham

2. George Bush

1. Eddie Redmayne - this is particularly relevant as he is playing Stephen Hawking the biopic The Theory of Everything, which will be released later this year. Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with ALS at age 21!

(And there's the added bonus of Jamie Dornan)