A video of former US President George W. Bush taking the Ice Bucket Challenge which he posted on Facebook. He got drenched by his wife, former first lady Laura Bush. Photo: Reuters TV/George W. Bush

David Beckham did it topless. Lady Gaga performed it in her signature quirky style. Bill Gates did it in slow motion. And Vin Diesel put the challenge to Vladimir Putin.

The #IceBucketChallenge is the latest charity craze to take the internet by storm, with people pouring iced water over their heads in a bid to raise money for charity.

Sport stars, international celebrities and it seems, everyone else, are posting videos of their chilly challenge on social networking sites and the trend has raised thousands of pounds for cancer and motor neurone disease charities.

Macmillan Cancer Support said 85,000 people have donated so far and about £250,000 has been raised, and while the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association was not able to give a figure at this stage, they said they had received “a lot” of donations and the total so far is believed to be in the thousands.

Meanwhile, in the US, the ALS Association – a motor neurone disease charity network – said it had received $22.9 million in donations compared to $1.9 million during the same time period last year (July 29 to August 19).

Golfers Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods did it together, taking it in turns to pour the iced water over each others’ heads.

McIlroy challenged fellow sports star Wayne Rooney to do it, and Rooney’s wife Coleen posted a picture of a bucket full of ice on Twitter.

The Irishman also challenged George W. Bush to take part, who in turn challenged Bill Clinton, while Woods challenged tennis player Rafael Nadal.

A giggling Simon Cowell appeared to be on a boat in a sunny destination when he did the deed, and through his giggles he nominated X Factor judges Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, Louis Walsh and Mel B.

Other big names to have stepped up to the challenge include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, Oprah Winfrey, Britney Spears and Justin Bieber, with the latter nominating US President Barack Obama.

Also enduring the shiver-inducing splash were models Cara Delevingne and Suki Waterhouse, while Good Morning Britain hosts Susanna Reid and Ben Shephard got drenched live on air.

Sally Light, chief executive of the MND Association, said the craze was an “unprecedented opportunity to raise awareness of what is a devastating terminal disease”.

She added: “The amazing sums of money being donated across the world and with sister organisations in the US and Australia too will go a long way towards finding out more about the disease for which there is no current cure.”

To take part, people need to have their experience filmed and then share it via sites such as Facebook and Twitter, challenging others to do it within 24 hours, before donating money to charity by text message.

The craze is similar to the #nomakeupselfie campaign earlier this year in which women posting bare-faced selfies online to help cancer research.