MINISTER LEO VARADKAR has braved the Ice Bucket Challenge.
He joined the School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin today to do his bit for Motor Neurone Disease…and he smiled the whole way through.
The Health Minister had the company of the Head of Trinity’s School of Medicine, Professor Paul Browne, and the Chief Executive of the Health Research Board, Dr Graham Love.
Twenty five percent of all funds raised through the challenge have been committed to fund the MND Research programme with Trinity’s internationally recognised research team.
The research will be led by Professor Orla Hardiman at the Unit of Academic Neurology – it was Hardiman who nominated Varadkar to do the challenge.
The disease, which causes a gradual degradation and death of motor neurons, affects about 300 Irish people, with some 110 new cases reported each year.
Here’s how the Health Minister got on when buckets of icey water were thrown over him.
Varadkar managed to keep smiling the whole way through the ordeal – not so much for the pair each side of him.
And his nominations?
The Health Minister has nominated Independent TD Mick Wallace, Director General of the HSE Tony O’Brien and former taoiseach John Bruton to take on the challenge for MND.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has been nominated for the challenge several times, a spokesperson told TheJournal.ie that he was ‘aware’ he has been nominated but that ‘it’s not yet clear‘ if he will take up the challenge.
Maybe these photos will help him come to a decision!
Simon Coveney was the first minister to take on the challenge, he posted this video on his Twitter account on August 24:
Read: The Ice Bucket Challenge has ‘touched the lives of people with MND and made them smile’>
Read: These Dublin nuns have just done the holiest ice bucket challenge yet>
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