Hampstead and Kilburn parliamentary candidate Maajid Nawaz has put his pride to one side for charity and braved the ice bucket challenge after a nomination from the Ham&High.
On Saturday, the Liberal Democrat answered Ham&High reporter Tim Lamden’s call for all three Hampstead and Kilburn parliamentary candidates to take on the challenge, after Mr Lamden was doused with ice water outside the newspaper’s office last week.
Mr Nawaz will donate to mental health charities Mind and CALM as part of his ice bucket drenching, which took place at Swiss Cottage Open Space and was administered by Tom Simon, former Lib Dem councillor for Camden’s Belsize ward.
He said: “CALM Zone deals with suicide and is a young men’s suicide hotline and Mind deals with depression and mental illness.
“Suicide is the largest killer of young men in this country. It kills more young men than cancer and road incidents.
“It’s something I care very passionately about and so that’s what I’m doing the ice bucket challenge for.”
The ice bucket challenge is the latest internet fad, having been promoted by a multitude of famous personalities, with social media sites such as Facebook overrun by videos of users taking on the challenge.
Its original aim was to raise awareness and money for charities working to fund a cure for motor neurone disease.
On Wednesday last week, Mr Lamden, who is also the Ham&High’s politics correspondent, was doused with a bucket of iced water by editor Geoff Martin outside the newspaper’s Charles House office in Finchley Road.
Ham&High staff have donated £50 to the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA), a sum which is set to be matched by the newspaper’s publisher Archant.
Tulip Siddiq, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn, refused to take on the challenge after nominations from the Ham&High and Uma Kumaran, Labour parliamentary candidate for Harrow East, but donated £100 to MNDA.
Responding to the Ham&High’s nomination, Ms Siddiq tweeted: “I hate wasting water but I love giving to charity so I will definitely be donating generously. Thanks for nominating me!!”
The Ham&High is awaiting a response from Conservative parliamentary candidate Cllr Simon Marcus who is understood to be out of the country.
Mr Nawaz nominated Camden New Journal deputy editor Richard Osley to take on the ice bucket challenge next.
You can watch footage of Mr Nawaz’s ice bucket challenge in the video above.
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