to feel cross at this charity? and WWYD if anything?

[cheepsskram]

The ice bucket challenge. It was started off to raise money for Motor Neuron Disease (MND or ALS in America).

In the last few days Macmillan have been encouraging people to do it for them.

I feel so fucked off. It feels like they have hijacked the idea of a much smaller charity. Now when people see it, they will think of cancer and not MND.

Macmillan get over 12 times the donations the MND association get.

I have friends posting videos and tagging each other.

I just don't like it because you do something to avoid donating. It's not dumping water on your head for a good cause, it's dumping water on your head so you don't have to give them any money. That's not really dumping water on your head for a good cause is it?

Wouldn't it be better if your friends donated a certain amount in your name then you'd have to dump water on your head?

Or maybe I'm missing the point.

I'm not sure people are even really associating a bucket dump with cancer. There's no links on the videos to donate, and there's not information on them. Just "Hey guys, I dumped water on my head for ASL!"

I also dislike it for the reasons you mention. It started off $10 of you do it, $100 if you don't.

Alpaca, I've seen quite a few on Fb for Macmillan and they have it on their website too.

There have been mentions of the ice bucket challenge on the Macmillan Facebook page for weeks, not just "the last few days". I have also seen it linked to a deafness charity. It is not exclusive to one charity, people can choose what charity they want to do it for. There isn't a copyright on this kind of thing, that's like saying someone can't do a sponsored bungee jump for one charity because another charity thought of it first. I'm sure the idea of being dared to dump a cold bucket of water on your head has been around for a while.

Round here, people who do it are expected to donate on their behalf, and all have posted a screen shot to prove their donation. I have only saw it done for MacMillan, I had no idea it was for Motor Neurone first. When we nominated people, we gave the details for macmillan but also said they could donate to wherever they wanted.

I only know of friends doing it in NZ for A child cancer charity. It is $10 if you do it $100 if you don't. Have not seen anything about it in the UK.

I saw an article on the local news pointing out it started out fur mnd! I was shocked I had only seen it on fb as a cancer thing. This did infuriate me as EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE does stuff and donates for cancer but barely anyone knows what mnd is. Unless you've lived through it.

My friends who have done it have done it for Water Aid. I resisted the temptation of pointing out the irony of wasting water by pouring it over yourself for a charity working to ensure global access to safe water...

Over the last week or so I've seen it on the Complex Regional Pain Syndrome fb page too, ironic as a sudden change in temperature is a well known 'flare' trigger. Only became aware of it on the MacMillan page today.

It's like every other viral Facebook thing - the message/charity changes as it goes along.

Does it matter? I would think people will donate to the charities that they want to anyway.

I saw this from my Deaf friends a few weeks before I saw it popping up among my hearing friends - there have been various charities mentioned by both including Deaf causes, mnd and cancer. Personally I'm not a big fan of any of these challenges but it's great if they get charities money they wouldn't have got otherwise I guess.

I got challenged by one of my friends - I politely told her to fuck off, and haven't donated either amount which was £3 to MacMillan have iced water poured over you, or £10 if you wimp out - which I really object to. I already have a couple of charities that I donate to regularly, and feel that MacMillan is already pretty well resourced so give to smaller ones more relevant to our family.