The Ice Bucket Challenge hype has raised some €500,000 for the Dutch ALS charity so far, the NRC said on Tuesday afternoon.

‘We normally get around 200 donations a month. Now we are heading for 20,000,’ Gorrit-Jan Blonk chairman of the ALS Nederland foundation told the paper.

In 2012, the foundation was given just over €1.5m in donations. In the US, the stunt has raised over €88m.

In the Netherlands, some 1,500 patients have ALS, a degenerative muscle disease with a life expectancy of between three and five years.

The charity also raises money in the Netherlands through the Amsterdam City Swim. The swim covers a two kilometre stretch of the city’s canals. Queen Maxima took part in 2012.