What’s On takes the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, after Mark Zuckerburg, Paul Bissonnette, Tiger Woods, Lady Gaga and others. See the best Ice Bucket Challenge.

Having watched the likes of Facebook boss Mark Zuckerburg, sports stars like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, John Terry and Paul Bissonnette, and celebrities totalling the thousands – like Oprah Winfrey, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga – take part on the Ice Bucket Challenge, our very own web editor Matt Fortune decided to do his bit for the good cause.

Created by the ALS Association, the challenge was created to help raise money and, importantly, awareness, of the fight against Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Often referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”, ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

Those who wish take part of asked to donate to an ALS charity as well as share their experience on social media, while those who are happy to observe are encouraged to dig a little deeper into the pockets. What’s On has done their bit, and we hope you do to.

Thankfully, unlike many of those doing their bit around the world, the 40 degree conditions on Dek On 8 at Media One made the drowning in ice cold water really quite relieving. At least, it did for the first split second.

There was, upsettingly for Matt, quite a queue of people from Team What’s On who wanted to arm themselves with buckets and drench the poor soul. In the end, three buckets was deemed sufficient.

Before the pouring, Matt took the chance to nominate other members of the media in the UAE – Sonja Stephen from Cosmopolitan, Duncan Hare from 7Days, and Chris McHardy from Yahoo – hoping that their influence and reach will continue to help bring the ALS cause to the forefront of people’s minds.

If you want to help more, please visit www.als.ca to learn how you can join the fight. 

ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN

Some have questioned the sensibility of the campaign, wondering truly if donations have been made and if any particular increase in awareness has been achieved. Well, What’s On can confirm they have stuck to their side of the bargain, while figures published by Time magazine show that all other objectives are showing promise. In the article by Diane Harris, titled ‘How to give smarter in an ALS Ice Bucket world’, she reveals the following:

– $16m (Dhs58.6m) has been raised for the ALS Association between July 29 and August 18, which compares very favourably indeed to the $19m raised throughout 2012.
– Page visits to the ALS Association website reached 16,000 between August 1 and August 17, an 8,500% increase on 2013.

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