NEW YORK CITY: A former US college baseball player who helped inspire the global phenomenon known as the “ice bucket challenge” to tackle a deadly neurodegenerative disease has died at the age of 34, his family said Monday. A one-time college athlete from the Boston area, Pete Frates’ struggle with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, was one of the inspirations behind the ice bucket challenge which took social media by storm in 2014. Millions took up the challenge which involved dousing themselves with a bucket of ice cold water and posting the video online, before making a donation to medical research and daring others to do the same. The campaign has reportedly raised more than US$200 million to fund research into ALS, whose sufferers’ bodies slowly shut down as their nervous systems degenerate. “Pete passed away surrounded by his loving family, peacefully at age 34, after a heroic battle with ALS,” his family said in a statement.

Source: New Strait Times December 09, 2019 22:41 UTC