ALS Ice bucket challenge (冰桶挑戰 or 冰淋城下)

 

 

This is an initiative started less than one month ago from the US.  Since then, a sum of celebrities has widespread this seemingly fun event worldwide.

 

It was just Wednesday this week (20 Aug) that I got to know about this on via seeing someone did it at a football field in Aberdeen and then on the news.  That very moment, a thought came to mind…will I eventually be challenged given the number of students I trained and people I knew?!

 

Guess what, yesterday when I was in the hospital with J for a regular prenatal check-up and in seeing a lot of aging people, a text came to me from my business partner for the challenge.  Hours later, she videoed her 2-years old daughter.  She wore her google and did the challenge…it was soooo cute.

 

Honestly, I thought of making a donation instead of doing the challenge.  Second thought, making donation is simple and meaningful, but for the greater cause is awareness and via doing this challenge, I can reach out more people to gain more awareness about ALS and trustfully will do greater good than US$100.

 

Some background about ALS

• ALS = Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (簡稱漸凍人症)
• ALS 1^st founded by French Neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot in 1869 (145 year ago)
• Got nationally and internationally widespread first time in 1939 (75 years ago) by a NY Yankees baseball star Lou Gehrig who was diagnosed with ALS
• Now about 30,000 Americans have ALS – a lot yet not enough people to gain enough public awareness and pharmaceutical companies’ attention to do research for cure treatment
• ALS is a serious illness that people who are diagnosed eventually cannot move or even breath on their own accord
• The Ice-bucket challenge started on 29 July 2014
• As of today over US$4M donation from this initiative

 

Hence, while it seems like a fun thing to do, this initiative carries a lot higher meaning behind which I highly regard.  Hence, I decided to take up this challenge!!!

 

Of course, what the hack!  Do something that you don’t usually do as life is too short to be wasted.  I thank Clarice and Catherine for the challenge and grant me this experience!!!

 

Now the next challenge is to find the next 3 people to take up the challenge within the next 24 hours (or a donation of US$100 to www.alsa.org).  While there are too many names that popped up in my mind, I ended up scaled down to these three:

1.  Teddy Wong (Canada) – my brother who is an adventurous and my best buddy for life

2.  Steven Hong (Singapore) – my most long-lasting friend since my Canada days

3.  Kelvin Fung (Hong Kong) – my pal, my advisor and my role model

 

Trustfully this brings a great life experience for these 3 challengers and a positive note to others around the social circle!!!

 

Lastly, though there are many fun Ice Bucket Challenge videos on youtube, take a look at this one that will likely touch your heart!

 

http://www.adaymag.com/video/2014/08/most-heart-warming-als-ice-bucket-challenge/
 

Best wishes to those who are diagnosed with ALS.

 

 

Note:  Too bad for some reasons I couldn't upload the video onto the blog.