Ice Bucket Challenge for MND – My experience of the madness!

Back in 2014, a certain craze where you chucked buckets of ice over your head took off, known as the #ALSIceBucketChallenge which became rather famous, and raised a load of cash across the world for research into Motor Neurone Disease, and we got it going in the UK, with some hard work!

Seeing it catch on, after Pete Frates and Pat Quinn started it stateside, a group of us talked about getting it going over here, and over a weekend, friends Paula and Robert Maguire set up the donation page, and Robert tipped the virgin bucket on a wet afternoon in Yorkshire! Thanks to Robert who decided to nominate me first, must have decided I’d be daft enough!

However, it was not easy to begin with, UK media saw the US thing happening, and did not tally MND and ALS, so I spent a few fair e-mails correcting journalists about the reason for it, so people would know what it was for, and how to find out more via the MND Association website, and donate to aid our cause!

After the first ten days of many battles and seeing the donation page increase to £500 (initial target), then finally hit £10,000 (a huge number), all of a sudden, with enough media coverage and a baking bank holiday weekend in August, things quickly accelerated, from £10k – to £100K, then £350K, then it just went crazy, we hit a million, then two, then three million, and finally FOUR million pounds!

Overall it hit more than £7 million in the UK, which has brought forward research projects, and much more, so to everyone who did their bit, a HUGE thankyou! To celebrate, I got to head to London, and have a reception with many fellow volunteers, and we met HRH The Princess Royal.

Importantly, for those of us who have had family that have lived through darker times with the disease, it gave us huge hope, the world finally knew our cause, they got our message, that was priceless.