ABC7 News reporter Alan Wang takes on Ice Bucket Challenge

LAFAYETTE, Calif. (KGO) -- A social craze is raising a phenomenal amount of awareness for the disease known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. It's a fatal disease that impacts the brain and spinal cord, causing progressive paralysis.

In the past two weeks, the Ice Bucket Challenge has soaked the world with awareness about ALS.

"Two years ago, I was walking," said ALS patient Bob Hall.

People are learning about Hall, who can no longer walk. He knows this fatal disease will eventually take away his ability to speak, eat, and breathe.

"If you would have said I was diagnosed with ALS, I wouldn't have known what it was," he said. "I would have had to go Google it."

Now ALS, which stands for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is gaining unprecedented publicity. ALS Association Golden West Chapter Vice Chair Sue Morris took the challenge. And Board Chairman Philip Thomas, whose wife suffers from ALS, also joined in.

So far, the National ALS Association has received $4 million, which is four times the amount donated last year. The pressure behind the Ice Bucket Challenge is hard to turn down. That's why ABC7 News reporter Alan Wang took on the challenge, and called out colleagues Dan Ashley, Ama Daetz, and Sandhya Patel to do the same.

For information on how to participate in the Golden West Chapter's Walk to Defeat ALS on Oct. 19, click here.

And to learn more about the man behind the challenge, click here.