I was recording a video this afternoon for an upcoming product review, and I received a notification from Google+.  

Interested about why I’d be tagged in a comment from Megan, The Front Butt YouTuber, I checked out the post and subsequent video.  

Megan had posted an awareness video for ALS, or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; you might know it as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.  You can check out her video below:

Megan has been an awesome voice for ostomates, and I’ve enjoyed the content she puts out on her YouTube channel, so when this video (and the challenge) came up, I just couldn’t pass it up.

Now, I admit that I hadn’t seen many of these ALS Ice Bucket Challenge videos, nor did I really know much about ALS, but the challenge prompted me to read up on it.

I was surprised to find out that Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest minds on earth, has ALS.  

But what surprises me even more was how much money has been raised through this awareness campaign: over $10,000,000 so far! Yes, TEN MILLION.  

That’s incredibly impressive, considering how rare this illness is (approx. 2-7/100,000 people).  

Just to put it into perspective, IBD affects about 149/100,000 according to the CCFA, that’s 25-70 TIMES more than ALS, yet we haven’t seen an awareness campaign generate that much funding for research.  The Canadian Gutsy Walk for Crohn’s and Colitis Canada has raised just over $26,000,000 since 1996.  So you can appreciate how huge this ALS campaign has been!

Hopefully, a genius among us will come up with an idea to raise as much for IBD research as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has raised (and will continue to raise) over the past few months.  I’m glad to see chronic illness awareness in the spotlight.  

It’s always positive when the public is talking about illness and working towards a cure.

Here’s my ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, I’ve challenged my daughter and will find two others to get their heads wet I challenge Stephanie from The Stolen Colon and Sara from Inflamed & Untamed to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge; two ladies that I know have a drive to help others and who I know will rise to this challenge :

To find out more about ALS, or to donate to find a cure, please visit www.als.ca if you are in Canada or https://www.als.org/ in the USA.  You can also find an ALS charity in your own country to support.