A friend of the man diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease), who first inspired the viral "ice bucket challenge," drowned Saturday, hours after raising $100,000 for ALS treatment and research.
Corey Griffin, 28, dove from a Nantucket building into the water below, where he resurfaced briefly before slipping to the floor of the harbor, according to a statement from the Nantucket Police Department. An off-duty life guard rescued Griffin from the water, and police attempted to resuscitate him upon arrival, but he was pronounced dead at the hospital at 3 a.m., Nantucket police said.
Griffin was friends with former Boston College baseball player Pete Frates, whose family and friends launched the ice-bucket challenge to raise money to fight ALS, which Frate was diagnosed with in 2012, according to NBC affiliate WHDH. The challenge has led to $11.6 million more in donations to the ALS Association than they received during the same time last year, according to the organization. "Team FrateTrain lost a good friend today, Corey Griffin," Pete Frates wrote on his Facebook page Sunday. "He worked his butt off these last few weeks for ALS."
