There has been some criticism that the ‘ice bucket challenge’ has failed to properly raise awareness of the intended issue.
Without googling it, name one person with the disorder the charity is trying to help.
If you cannot think of one, at least tell me the name of the disorder.
Could you spoiler your answer, so everything gets a chance.
Stephen Hawking
What do I win? (Don’t say a bucket of ice water.)
My friend’s mother … except that she died two years ago.
but the challenge had been going for some time before I realised that ALS is the same as Motor Neurone Disease
Stephen Hawking. It was previously known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, for the baseball player. Without using Google, what I knew of it is that in the last stages, people lose their ability to swallow, so choke to death on their own saliva. I could be wildly wrong but, not a minor thing to try to avoid.
My mother had ALS. She lost the ability to swallow safely early on, so she had a feeding tube inserted. Eventually, the muscles that allowed her to breathe stopped working, so she suffocated and died. It took a long time and unimaginable suffering to get to that point.
In ALS, the sufferer’s mental acuity remains intact, even though he can no longer speak or move. My mom could still scream, though, almost to the end.
I’m an ICU nurse so I see people die from lots of things. In my opinion, ALS is the worst disease.
This thread makes me think of this comic
What do I win? (Don’t say a bucket of ice water.)
[/QUOTE]
An ice cold beer (if you have any in your fridge)
She has found peace, I wish no one would have to suffer like she did.
Motor Neurone Disease is even more horrible than I previously thought. I hope they find effective treatments soon
Morrie Schwartz (see Mitch Albom’s “Tuesdays With Morrie”) for details.
Didn’t I once hear that Hawking had a similar disorder but not ALS?
Google’s not helping otherwise. Some treat motor neuron diseases as = ALS, Wikipedia says it’s one of 5 subtypes.
I suppose it doesn’t matter, because IF (big if) the IBC helps, it would help all of them.
Second question: which disorder did the “real life” Rain Man have?
FG syndrome most likely, although the movie version was autistic.
Two of my cousins, both sadly deceased.
ALS is a type of motor neurone disease, but people in the UK usually just say motor-neurone disease when they mean specifically ALS
My grandfather-- who died almost twenty years ago.
My mom’s good friend-- who died last year.
My uncle’s really good friend-- who died five or ten years ago.
I was seriously surprised to hear how small the number of people estimated to be suffering from the disease at present is.
My brother and his family, his father in law died of ALS.
A professional colleague of mine has it.
My mom died of it. 
I have three close friends with “the disorder”. I’m not going to name them here. One is essentially “frozen”, in that she can’t move under her own power at all, or speak.
of course there’s always Lou Gherig…
Science Wheel chair British dude!
(Just kidding. I know Stephen Hawkins name.)
Well, it used to be called Lou Gerhig’s disease, and not because he was the doctor who discovered it.Also, I’ve had people who were clients of agencies I worked for who had it. It’s a terrible disease, although there is a particularly relentless form of MS that is even more heartbreaking.
Whoever pointed out that the “Rainman” guy (I hated that movie) wasn’t autistic, thanks.
[spoiler]Matthew Saad Muhammed, former WBC light heavyweight boxing champion, and Ezzard Charles, former world heavyweight champion.
I don’t know anyone with the disease personally.[/spoiler]
Regards,
Shodan
I don’t see how anyone can say with a straight face that this campaign didn’t raise awareness for ALS. It’s been wildly successful, in just about any way you care to measure it. Any criticism leveled at it is just knee-jerk backlash.
My grandfather. He died of ALS about 6 years ago