LONDON, Aug 14 — After the ice bucket challenge went viral in its bid to promote awareness of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, a new challenge has gone viral on the internet, this time, in support of veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The 22-push up challenge involves doing 22 push-ups, also known as a press-up, for 22 days, and participants upload videos of themselves when they complete the challenge daily while nominating someone else with the hashtag #22pushups.
The challenge, which was started by military personnel, was an effort to raise money and awareness for the mental health condition that many military veterans develop after their time in service.
Hollywood couple Chris Pratt and Anna Faris have gamely accepted the challenge from Twitter user @canadianoutlaw, which Guardians of the Galaxy star Pratt said was “to raise awareness about this terrible reality,” according to his video on Twitter.
His wife, Scary Movie star Faris added, “We also couldn’t be more grateful for the men and women who serve our country every day. Thank you so much.”
#22PushupChallenge @canadinoutlaw @TheRock @vincentdonofrio @johnkrasinski pic.twitter.com/R9GMpA5kku
Advertisement— chris pratt (@prattprattpratt) 13 August 2016
The couple, who posted the video on Pratt’s Twitter page @prattprattpratt, nominated fellow actors Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Vincent D’Onofrio and John Krasinski.
Faris struggled a little and had to take a small time-out around the 19th push-up mark, but managed to complete all 22 push-ups with encouragement from her husband.
Another video showed 600 British Army cadets at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurts take on the challenge, led by Major-General Paul Nanson and accompanied by drumbeats and brass from a military band in a video posted on Facebook.
Even a British police dog, Monty, joined the challenge with his trainer PC Steve Hopwood in a video posted on the Avon and Somerset Police Facebook page.
The videos are recorded in support of a website called 22kill.com, a global movement to bridge the gap between military veterans and civilians to build a community of support. The site got its name through a suicide data report that stated that an average of 22 veterans are “killed by suicide” every day.
22Kill programme director Jimmy Mac said the intention of the site and challenge is to reduce the veteran suicide rate among those suffering from PTSD.
The challenge began after the site was offered US$100,000 (RM401,950) if they can drum up 1,000 videos of people doing 22 push-ups and managed to achieve that goal when they received 3,000 videos in three days.
22kill.com now aims to record 22 million push-ups “to honour those who serve”. At the time of writing, the count stands at 7 million.
