Patrick Quinn
Activist who helped to send the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ viral
PATRICK QUINN, who has died aged 37, was an activist for awareness of the incurable motor neurone disease, known in the US as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease, after the revered baseball player who contracted it; the “Ice Bucket Challenge” Quinn helped to send viral in 2014 raised hundreds of millions of dollars for research into the condition.
He was born in Yonkers, along the Hudson from New York City, on February 10 1983 to Patrick Snr and Rosemary; he attended Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, where he played rugby. He was 30 when he was diagnosed with ALS, and campaigned with Pete Frates, a talented former college baseball player who had gone on to play professionally in Germany.
The Ice Bucket Challenge had its origins in the “Cold Water Challenge”, which became popular in parts of the northern US and Norway: those taking the challenge either donated money to cancer research or jumped into icy water (or, in another versions, bought drinks for friends).
Professional golfers began to use the stunt to raise money for charities, and when one of their number, Chris Kennedy, undertook the challenge of having a bucket of icy water poured over his head in support of a family member who had ALS, Quinn and Frates heard about it.
They began promoting the challenge with a video on social media which was seen around the world. Soon celebrities ranging from Bill Gates, George W Bush and Donald Trump to Justin Bieber, Leonardo Dicaprio, Lady Gaga (below left) and Oprah Winfrey were all being drenched in freezing water, pledging money and asking for donations; even Homer Simpson had a go.
British participants included David Beckham, Lewis Hamilton and Anna Wintour (below right). The then Prime Minister David
Cameron was challenged by both Alex Salmond and Russell Brand to undergo the ordeal but declined, restricting himself to making a donation.
In just six weeks
$115 million was raised for the American ALS Association, as well as $220 million around the world; in the UK the Motor Neurone Disease Association was the principal beneficiary.
Quinn and Frates went on to be jointly nominated as Time magazine’s “Person of the Year”. Though the Challenge petered out, there were several revivals, and Quinn carried on his work through his Facebook group Quinn for the Win; each August he would repeat the Challenge, calling his efforts “Every August Until the Cure”.
In 2017, as his condition gradually deteriorated, Quinn lost the use of his voice, but the following year a “voice bank” of his interviews and speeches was created. Last year he addressed a meeting celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Challenge, telling the audience that the campaign had “connected with a sweet left hook to the jaw of ALS and shook the disease up, but by no means is this fight over.”
Patrick Quinn married Jennifer Flynn in 2014, but they later divorced. He is survived by his parents, as well as a brother and halfbrother; Pete Frates, who became a mentor to Quinn, died in 2019 aged 34.
Patrick Quinn, born February 10 1983, died November 22 2020