Kentish Express Ashford & District
Woman wears her wedding dress for icy bridal shower
PhenoMenon
The ice bucket challenge phenomenon has been a huge success for the benefiting charity.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosi (ALS), otherwise known as motor neurone disease (MND), is a rare condition where parts of the nervous system become damaged and the muscles waste away.
As the condition gets worse, sufferers find basic activities like walking or speaking increasingly difficult.
Life expectancy for about half of those with the disease is three to four years.
Before the ice-bucket craze, the MND Association would receive around £200,000 a week in donations.
From August 22 to 29 it recorded a record of £2.7m. A woman vowed she would do her ice bucket challenge for better or worse after agreeing to wear her wedding dress for the soaking.
Insurance broker Sarah Hutchinson,42, put on her wedding dress for the first time since her wedding day and headed down to The Little Silver Country Hotel in St Michaels to undertake the freezing challenge.
Mrs Hutchinson, from St Michaels in Tenterden, stood on the same steps at the same hotel where she married husband Rob nearly five years ago to have the icey bucket poured over her.
She said: “Rob works at the hotel as a DJ and the staff, management and owners promised that if any past, present or future brides of the hotel did the chal- lenge in their wedding dress then they would donate £100 to charity.
“Within an hour I had rushed down there wearing my wedding dress – which hasn’t even been out of its box since our wedding – and taken on the challenge for Macmillan.
“Rob’s cousin Rose Hiscock lost her battle with cancer two years ago so I did this in her memory.”
At the end of her video, Mrs Hutchinson challenges more brides who got hitched at the hotel to do the challenge in their special dress.
Facebook timelines and twitter newsfeeds are full up with videos of people doing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, a viral craze which began in America a few months ago.
It became an international fundraising phenomenon after scores of celebrities uploaded their videos of the drenching.
The nominee can either accept the challenge and donate money to the ALS Association or refuse and donate a larger sum instead.
But more are choosing to donate to different causes – Mac- millan Cancer Support were even accused of hijacking the trend.
Water Aid has seen a huge hike in donations, receiving nearly £50,000 in one day.
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