One of the co-founders of the viral ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Pat Quinn, has passed away on November 22. According to the statement released by the ALS Foundation, he was only 37 years old.
Ice Bucket Challenge
The Ice Bucket Challenge went viral in 2014. There were more than 17 million people who participated in the challenge by pouring ice water over their heads to raise awareness of ALS.
In the United States alone, 2.5 million donated $115 million to the ALS Association. It was the single largest episode of giving outside of a disaster or emergency.
According to the ALS Foundation, Quinn fought ALS with positivity and bravery and he inspired all around him. The people who knew him are devastated but are grateful for all that he did to advance the fight against ALS.
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Quinn lived in Yonkers, New York. He was only 30 years old when he was diagnosed with ALS in March 2013. The ALS Association said that after his diagnosis, Quinn established a group of supporters "Quinn for the Win" to raise awareness and to raise funds for the fight against ALS.
The "Quinn for the Win" group posted on its official Facebook page on November 22 that Quinn was a blessing to all of them in so many ways and that they will always remember him for his inspiration and his courage in his tireless fight against ALS.
In December 2019, Pete Frates, another man who popularized the Ice Bucket Challenge, died at age 34.
The Ice Bucket Challenge was a multimillion-dollar movement that was created to help find a cure for ALS. In order to participate in the said challenge, people dumped a bucket of ice-cold water over their heads then challenged a friend to either do the same or donate money to The ALS Association.
The ALS Association also reported that it and its 38 other chapters have received $4 million in donations in just two weeks after the Ice Bucket Challenge appeared and spread on social media. During that same time, the association brought in $1.1 million.
What is ALS?
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as ALS, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. It affects the nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord that makes the muscles of both the upper body and lower body work.
Those nerve cells then lose their ability to initiate and to control muscle movement, which then leads to paralysis and eventually, death. People diagnosed with ALS lose control of muscle movement and they also lose their ability to eat, speak, walk and breathe.
The most famous person to be diagnosed with ALS was physicist Stephen Hawking, who died at the age of 76.
ALS is named after Lou Gehrig, a famous baseball player who retired in 1939 because of the condition. Other famous people who was diagnosed with ALS were actor David Niven, jazz musician Charles Mingus and NBA Hall of Famer George Yardley.
Little is still known about the cause of the disease, the condition is more common in men than women. Currently, there is no cure.
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