ALS Ice Bucket Challenge raises £6.8m

Good Morning Britain presenters Susanna Reid and Ben Shephard took part in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in August. Credit: Good Morning Britain/ITV

This summer's ALS (Motor Neurone Disease) Ice Bucket Challenge raised £6.8m in the UK in just four weeks, a health charity has announced.

Motor Neurone Disease attacks parts of the nervous system which control muscles, effecting sufferers' ability to talk and eventually rendering them immobile.

The MND Association, a charity which tries to fight the disease, said the money would go on their "core mission activities"; care and support sufferers, promote research and raise awareness.

Celebrities like Benedict Cumberbatch, Steven Spielberg and even former American President George W. Bush joined the viral fundraising campaign.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has raised over £6.8m so far, the vast majority donated via text.

So far the MND Association has received 910,000 thanks to the scheme. Last year the charity took in 161,000 donations.

There are an estimated 5,000 people living with MND in the UK, with most dying within two to five years of diagnosis.

MND sufferer Charlie Fletcher told Good Morning Britain thedisease effected "every single tiny thing that you could possibly think of".

Charlie, who was diagnosed when she was 26, said the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was "phenomenal" and was optimistic about where it might lead in the future.