Icy challenge gains momentum
People around the world are taking on a daring dare to raise money and awareness for ALS.
THE Ice Bucket challenge (#ALSIceBucketChallenge) is all the craze on social media networks with people from around the world dunking a bucket full of ice water over their heads in aid of charity.
According to Wikipedia, the Ice Bucket Challenge, also called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, is an activity involving dumping a bucket of ice water on someone’s head to promote awareness of the disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and encourages donations for research into a cure. It went viral on social media in July and August.
The challenge dares nominated participants to be filmed having a bucket of ice water poured on their heads and challenging others to do the same. A common stipulation is that nominated people have 24 hours to comply or forfeit by way of a charitable financial donation.
A dangerous dare
BUT worldwide the challenge has claimed the lives of two people so far.
Forbes.com wrote about a Scottish teenager, 18-year-old Cameron Lancaster, who supposedly drowned after jumping into a flooded quarry.
The second victim, 40-year-old father Willis Tepania from New Zealand, completed the challenge before drinking a litre of bourbon in a matter of minutes. He suffered a heart attack five hours later and died.
In another incident, not related to the ice bucket challenge, Corey Griffin, a 27-year-old who raised $100 000 for his friend Pete Frates, the college baseball player with ALS who made the campaign go viral, died after diving into the Nantucket Island Harbor.
On 22 August Dr. Brian O’Neill, a physician, warned that the challenge may have adverse health effects on participants, including potentially inducing a vagal (fainting) response which might, for example, lead to unconsciousness in people taking blood pressure medications.
Celebrities brave the cold
LOCAL celebrity and former Springbok scrum-half, Joost van der Westhuizen, who has been living with motor neuron disease since 2011 (which is also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or Lou Gehring’s disease) took on the challenge as well. He was nominated by Stuart McFarlane, who also lives with ALS, as well as Rian van Heerden, a DJ on Jacaranda FM.
He encouraged South Africans to donate to his non-profit organisation, the J9 Foundation. He nominated Kevin Fine from Jacaranda FM, as well as the Australian and New Zealand national teams and the Springbucks.
Top Billing presenter, Jeannie D also weighed in on the action in her own ALS Ice Bucket Challenge video.
