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 1st 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!
Best wishes to those who are diagnosed with ALS.
Note: Too bad for some reasons I couldn't upload the video onto the blog.
