Ice bucket challenge sees donations to local charity surge

Thanks to global sensation the Ice Bucket Challenge, a local charity helping motor neurone disease patients has received HK$26 million since last month - 130 times the donations it received for all of last year.

The Hong Kong Neuro-Muscular Disease Association said yesterday that 25 per cent of the money raised would go directly to patients - to help them buy breathing machines, wheelchairs, rehabilitation equipment and medicine.

The money raised so far will help an estimated 200 patients, based on last year's spending, senior organising officer Jintana Sae Sow said.

The association assists 300 patients in the city with neuro-muscular disease, an incurable condition in which the muscles degenerate. Of the 300, some 40 people have the fatal amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which can lead to total paralysis.

"We will start giving out the supplies by the end of this year," Jintana said. "To ensure transparency, a steering committee will be set up to oversee the use of donations."

The challenge originated in the United States and has become a hit around the world. The idea is that the "frozen" sensation of icy water simulates the state of immobility that patients with the disease endure.