Up to a few days ago I didn’t think that there was anything that could ever happen that would get me to throw buckets of ice-cold water onto me.

I hate feeling cold even if for a moment and I especially hate the combination of being wet and cold, in fact, even in the hottest summer months, I think twice (make that 100 times), before I get into the sea.

The upside of being such a prima donna is that the summer heat doesn’t really get to me; I hardly ever sweat, and as far as I’m concerned, air conditioning could cease to exist.

But then came the #icebucketchallenge and a few days ago I found myself throwing ice water all over me. Well, I didn’t quite do it myself because as I said I’m quite the wuss when it comes to the cold, and I did try to get away with it by cheating on the bucket size (no one specified did they?) but I didn’t manage.

There’s been lots of controversy surrounding the whole ordeal, but I suspect that this was a particularly hot issue in Malta because that’s what we do isn’t it?

We love arguing, we love speculation, we love confrontation, and we love ruling by exception. Mind you, I include myself in this description but when something proves to be genuinely good, like this challenge has, I eventually come round to admitting it. And admitting it I am!

Granted there’s the water wastage issue, there’s voyeurism, there’s animal testing and stem cell research, but at the end of the day this little stunt took the world by a storm, raised a whole lot of awareness about a cause that was mostly unknown and, ultimately raised millions of dollars to research a cure.

So let’s chill shall we?

In Malta the #icebucket challenge was particularly successful thanks to many coincidences – firstly because everyone is related, so everyone must have been nominated (borrowed from the Miscellaneous Man without permission), secondly because it happened to hit us in the blistering heat of August, and thirdly because we are the most Facebook-obsessed nation ever.

Nevertheless the millions of people around the globe who produced videos and shared them online did a world of good. Even if some didn’t donate, they still raised a whole lot of awareness about the cause, and believe me most of the time raising awareness is more difficult to do than raising funds.

Awareness and donations go pretty much hand in hand, because without awareness funds are very unlikely to pour in. With the right contacts and the right approach you can get quite a nice sum donated to the right cause, but try educating thousands and thousands of people around the globe and it is likely to cost you the earth and the moon... unless of course out comes a stunt like the #icebucket challenge, which makes it happen.

Whether by accident or by design this is probably the most effective marketing ploy I’ve seen in action in my entire life. Quite frankly I couldn’t be happier that it was done for a good cause and not for some commercial business that makes rich wo/men richer.

Bring the next fun and frivolous act of charity on I say.