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Talk show maven Oprah Winfrey (pictured) recently accepted the ice bucket challenge that has been going viral over social media in order to benefit Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease, which affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord and controls voluntary muscle movement, with victims progressively losing their ability to eat, speak, walk, and eventually breathe.

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The dousing challenge involves encouraging people to pour buckets of ice water over their heads and then donate money for ALS research toward finding a cure. Thus far, between July 29th and August 12th, the ALS Association has received a stupefying $4 million in donations compared to $1.2 million during the same time last year.

There is only one drug, which only modestly extends survival by two to three months, on the market that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat the fatal disease.

Therefore, countless people, including many celebrities, such A-listers as Kerry Washington, Justin Timberlake and LeBron James, have participated in the ice bucket challenge.

President Barack Obama, who was tagged by a few celebs like LeBron and Ethel Kennedy to also partake in the ice bucket dousing, reportedly opt out. Matt Viser of the Boston Globe wrote, even though Obama did not reportedly accept the challenge, he did reportedly make a monetary donation.

Before Oprah accepted her icy fate, she challenged the likes of iconic film director Steven Spielberg, English Academy Award-winning actress Dame Helen Mirren, and the star of the much-raved about film“The Hundred-Foot Journey,” Manish Dayal, to also take part in the charity..

Check out Oprah’s hilarious dousing by best bud Gayle King (pictured) here:

 

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