The social media craze which is the Ice Bucket Challenge, has been confirmed as the most popular of this year, out doing the previous craze of No Make-Up Seflies.
The company behind the craze which involves tipping an ice cold bucket of water over your head and donating a nominal fee to the Motor Neuron Disease Association via text , LIKECHARITY, has released figures which show more than half a million Irish people have donated to the Irish Motor Neuron Disease Association via text.
The figures released today surpasses the 259,000 texts sent by women all over the country for the no make-up selfies which amounted to more than €1m back in March.
The Irish Motor Neuron Disease Association received a huge amount texts within the last week, and there has been huge spike in donations over the past two weeks, and according to the figures more than €200,000 was donated on Sunday, August 24 alone, and have continued to climb since.
The COO of LIKECHARITY John Kyne, said in a staement to the press: “We noticed the trend beginning to grow in New Zealand a few months back. “Knowing Irish people are always quick to help a good cause, and have a bit of craic doing so, we battened down the hatches in preparation. But once again the Irish people have gone above and beyond, eclipsing all other viral campaigns by miles.”
The Chief Executive of the IMNDA Aisling Farrell,, also said: “IMNDA could never have imagined the public response that we have received through the MND Ice Bucket Challenge. “We are overwhelmed with the support the Irish public have shown us and our MND community, their generosity has touched people with MND’s lives, made them smile though they are living with this terrible illness and provided much needed funds to continue services they desperately require.”
This latest campaign is the third in recent years for the Dublin-based LIKECHARITY, who provide their text donation service free of charge to Irish charities. The charity is understood to have raised close to €4m for the Irish charity sector since being created in January 2013.