Both celebrated and ridiculed: The Ice Bucket Challenge, a fundraising campaign for the neurological disease ALS, went round the world on social media in the summer of 2014. Now six years later, the proceeds have been used to develop an effective drug.

Former U.S. President George W. Bush took part, and Bill Gates’ teeth also chattered as one of the celebrities who filmed themselves pouring buckets of ice water over their heads, posting the videos on their various social media channels and tagging one or two other celebrities, nominating them to follow their lead. And the snowball started rolling.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge wave that swept across the world in the summer of 2014 was initiated in the USA by patients suffering from a fairly unknown illness at the time: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative disease of the motor nervous system. It is an insidious disease that destroys nerves and paralyzes muscles. As it progresses, those affected can no longer move and face increasingly difficulty in swallowing, breathing and speaking. There is no cure for ALS, which inevitably leads to death.

Despite its severity, ALS had little public presence for a long time. Some might have known it as the disease famous US baseball player Lou Gehring was diagnosed with or the condition that forced physicist Stephen Hawking into a wheelchair trapped in a body with limited functionality.

The Ice Bucket Challenge was intended to attract more attention – and donations.

The causes of ALS are still unknown and only around one to two out of every 100,000 people worldwide contract it every year. Research into such rare diseases is costly and depends on funding, as do the self-help organizations that council and support those with the disease. The challenge made use of a very direct appeal, asking anyone with the guts to pour a bucket of ice water over their head to donate just 10 US dollars to an ALS Association. Those who lacked the courage were asked to donate 100 US dollars.