ALS sufferer takes on Ice Bucket Challenge For His Own Cause[Video]

mark zuckerberg, facebook — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during his keynote address at Facebook's f8 developers conference in San Francisco, California April 30, 2014. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

A man, David Kurt McClain, suffering from ALS or Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis took part in the Ice Bucket Challenge, reported the Huffington Post. David, a US citizen from Texas, posted his video and it focuses on the cause and not the celebrities indulging in it.

He suffers from motor neuron disease, commonly known as ALS in the United States. For more than twelve years, he's been suffering and is paralysed from the shoulder downwards. He still maintains a positive attitude and took part in the challenge to help himself and others suffering from the disease.

In the video he posted, using a speech synthesizer necessary for him to communicate, he explained the disease and those on his Facebook page to take the challenge as well as make donations.

The ALS Association has organised the Ice Bucket Challenge in order to raise funds for the cause. The challenge involves posting a video of one pouring ice cold water over their heads and then nominating three others to do the same. If a person fails to do so, a donation should be made with amounts between $10 and $100, decided by the person who nominated them.

Celebrities like David Beckham, Mark Zuckerberg, Ricky Gervais, John Terry have also taken part in the challenge while many others like United States President, Barack Obama, and Charlie Sheen, preferred to make donations.

The challenge has been an absolute success with the organisation rasing almost 32 million dollars, almost eight times of what was collected in the previous years.

The ALS Association wrote on it's Web site, "Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease," is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralysed."