Ice Ice Baby: Why I will donate but not videotape

As I was coming back to London from a weekend spend at home with the family on Sunday, I was lucky (or should I say unlucky) enough to be nominated for the #ALSIceBucketChallenge by my lovely friend Jeremy. 

After cursing him for a few minutes that he was subjecting me to public ridicule and a few minutes of coldness (I am a sissy, what can I say, I HATE being cold), I started thinking about it. Aside from the fact that I wasn’t keen on getting doused in ice cold water I also realized that I didn’t really have anyone to help me not chicken out, as well as be cruel enough to document it all on film.

I donate to a few different charities close to my heart every month plus giving money to my old university department to help fund scholarships amongst other things. Giving back to the community and helping some great non-profit organisations do the great work that they do has been an important part of my life and will continue to be one.

So really, doing the Ice Bucket Challenge should be a no brainer. However, after spending a good few days thinking it over, I have made the decision not plash myself and capture it. Why you may ask? Not because I am selfish, don’t want to donate to a great cause or because I am too vain.

Firstly, it is great to see ALS getting attention worldwide and educating people about the disease, and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching celebrities freeze their tails off. However, clean drinking water is not something that everyone everywhere has access too. The amount of clean, life-saving water is being wasted doing the challenge borderline breaks my heart.

Matt Damon co-founded water charity water.org and his Ice Bucket Challenge is a brilliant example of raising awareness of not only a crippling disease but also an issue that leads to the death of way too many people each year. Water is precious and really we should think of ways to raise money for charity in a way that doesn’t waste one of our valuable resources. So instead of watering myself, I will be donating the value of my monthly water bill to water.org.

Secondly, I have another charity that has recently come closer to my heart because of personal circumstances. Without going into too much detail, I am also going to be donating to the German Cancer charity Deutsche Krebshilfe who do some fantastic work in terms of research as well as offering information and support for both sufferers as well as their loved ones.

Cancer affects so many of us in some way and so much more can be done for sufferers with the right prevention, research and diagnoses. However, because we see it around us so much we almost forget that there is still a lot of work to be done in terms of lowering the number of cancer deaths. Detusche Krebshilfe will join the list of organisations that I give to every month and there are lots of great UK charities to do the same work locally such as McMillan and Cancer Research UK.

Having said all that it is important to remember that ALS is a tragic disease that I would not wish upon my worst enemy. And that is because, despite not having completed the actual challenge, I will be doing what a lot of people might have forgotten in all the PR blitz: donate. You can donate to the ALS cause via the US ALS Association here and the UK Motor Neurone Disease Association here.

And now for the best part…. I would like to nominate Sarah Parkes, Jack Garrett-Jones, Christian Natter, Paul Carr, Noemi Reiner and Verena Koeppeler. You guys have 48 hrs – because I am nice! Extra points if you sing Ice Ice Baby while you do it. Don’t hate me!

You can read and see all about the challenge on Twitter here.