Former US President George W. Bush cops an ice bucket delivered by his wife, Laura. Courtesy ALS - AL/YouTube

GEORGE W Bush’s ice bucket challenge is possible the best one yet. But how much money is the latest fad actually raising for charity?

The #IceBucketChallenge is the latest charity craze continuing to take the internet by storm, with people pouring iced water over their heads in a bid to raise money for charity.

David Beckham did it topless. Lady Gaga performed it in her signature quirky style. Bill Gates did it in slow motion. And Vin Diesel put the challenge to Vladimir Putin.

So far the challenge seems to be working with thousands of dollars raised for cancer and motor neurone disease charities.

Macmillan Cancer Support said 85,000 people have donated so far and about STG250,000 ($456,329) has been raised, and while the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association was not able to give a figure at this stage they said they had received “a lot” of donations and the total so far is believed to be in the thousands.

Meanwhile, in the US, the ALS Association — a motor neurone disease charity network — said it had received $US22.9 million ($24.78 million) in donations compared to $US1.9 million during the same time period last year (July 29 to August 19).

Bill Gates does the Ice Bucket Challenge Bill Gates accepts Mark Zuckerberg’s ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and nominates Elon Musk, Ryan Seacrest and Chris Anderson from TED to participate and raise awareness for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Golfers Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods did it together, taking it in turns to pour the iced water over each others’ heads.

McIlroy challenged fellow sports star Wayne Rooney to do it, and Rooney’s wife Coleen posted a picture of a bucket full of ice on Twitter this morning.

The Irishman also challenged George W Bush to take part, while Woods challenged tennis player Rafael Nadal.

A giggling Simon Cowell appeared to be on a boat in a sunny destination when he did the deed, and through his giggles he nominated X Factor judges Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, Louis Walsh and Mel B.

Other big names to have stepped up to the challenge include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, Oprah Winfrey, Britney Spears and Justin Bieber, with the latter nominating US president Barack Obama.

Sally Light, chief executive of the MND Association, said the craze was an “unprecedented opportunity to raise awareness of what is a devastating terminal disease”.

“The amazing sums of money being donated across the world and with sister organisations in the USA and Australia too will go a long way towards finding out more about the disease for which there is no current cure.”

To take part, people need to have their experience filmed and then share it via sites such as Facebook and Twitter, challenging others to do it within 24 hours, before donating money to charity.