Ice Bucket charity challenge helps to raise £7m for Motor Neurone Disease Association

The Motor Neurone Disease Association said they were grateful for all the money raised.

Brian Dickie, the charity’s director of research, who has done the challenge three times, said it wanted to thank everyone who had taken part after a “phemomenal” response.

The act, which involves people upending buckets of ice cold water over themselves, became an online craze earlier this year, spreading to the UK from the United States.

Celebrities including actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Sherlock Holmes, Sheffield atheletics star Jessica Ennis-Hill and former Friends actor Jennifer Aniston, as well as former US president George Bush and even Vogue editor Anna Wintour are among those seen being drenched in cold water in online footage.

Many have posted their videos on Facebook and Twitter and nominated others to follow in their footsteps by taking the challenge and donating money to their chosen charity.

Mel White, chairman of the MND Association’s South Yorkshire branch, said money donated to it would directly towards help people in the area with the condition.

“Among other things, we help to provide people with MND with essential items such as communication aids, stair lifts, ramps, and other equipment that can become necessary as the disease progresses,” he said.

“We also work closely with the Sheffield Institute for 
Translational Neuroscience which boasts some of the 
leading MND researchers in the country.”