The month of May is ALS Awareness month, where each year people who suffer the disease receive extra support and advocacy.
ALS, which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a chronic disease in the human body’s nervous system that can weaken muscles and effect its physical function. This disease happens when nerve cells break down, which directly affects the body’s functionality. While in some cases ALS can be inherited from a parent, for the most part, the cause of the disease is not definitively known. ALS is known to be a fairly rare type of disease.
ALS awareness month, and the disease itself, gained international attention in the summer of 2014, when videos of people pouring buckets of ice water on themselves as part of a challenge went viral on the internet. The challenge was to pour a bucket of ice water on yourself and post a video of it within 24 hours of being nominated or donate money to a charity associated with ALS.
Numerous celebrities participated in the ice bucket challenge, including Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Dolly Parton, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and many others. Some celebrities, including Cumberbatch, donated money along with doing the challenge as a way to benefit charities and bring awareness to ALS. There were other public figures, including government officials, who participated in the challenge as well.
Since the initial summer, in the 2014, when the ice bucket challenge went viral, there have been multiple attempts to revive it. From the years 2015 through 2019, there have been multiple organization and people who have tried to start the trend once again. However, these attempts have all been far less successful.
The most successful year, other than 2014, was 2015. Charlie Baker, the governor of Massachusetts, did the challenge while wearing a shirt calling the National Football League’s suspension of Tom Brady to be lifted. Celebrities like Justin Bieber, Hugh Jackman, Renee Zellweger and Eddie Redmayne all participated in the challenge, some for the second time.
Despite these attempts, and others in the years since, the challenge has failed to gain the same traction that it had in 2014.
When the challenge was at its’ peak it was able to raise more than two hundred million dollars worldwide according to the New York Times.
In 2020, Patrick Quinn, an ALS activist who cofounded the challenge died from the disease at 37 years old, after suffering from it for seven years.
Although the ice bucket challenge is no longer as popular, ALS is still an important disease the needs awareness and money to continue researching the disease. Some foundations associated with ALS research and advocacy are the ALS Association, the Les Turner ALS Foundation and the ALS Therapy Development Institute. All of these resources, and other like them, are still working to find the origin, slow the progression of the disease and find new ways of treating ALS.