The former baseball player who inspired the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has died.
The family of Peter Frates announced Monday that the former Boston College star finally lost his 7{-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, but he went down swinging.
"Today Heaven received our angel: Peter Frates," a web page operated under Frates' name reads. "A husband to Julie, a father to Lucy, a son to John and Nancy, a brother to Andrew and Jennifer, Pete passed away surrounded by his loving family, peacefully at age 34, after a heroic battle with ALS."
Frates was diagnosed with ALS in March 2012 at the age of 27. The Ice Bucket Challenge, where people raise funds and awareness of ALS by dumping freezing water over their heads then challenge others to do the same, soon became a global phenomenon, raising $220 million for the cause. Frates was said to be the fourth person on record to have personally dumped freezing water on his head to draw attention to a cause. In 2017, he wrote a book on the topic.
Public figures including Bill Gates, George W. Bush, Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey have since soaked themselves in the name of charity.
Frates' funeral will be held outside Boston College, where he played ball, at a date that hasn't been announced.
The motor neurone disease is more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in honor of the Yankee great who succumbed to the illness in 1941.
