the star Michael J. Fox (61) He lived with Parkinson’s disease for 31 years. Now the disease has already begun to put restrictions on him in his daily life.
Meeting Diana: – A nightmare
When he was going to watch a boxing match in Las Vegas, he couldn’t go by himself. He should have been pushed onto the field and out again.
The star has used a wheelchair on long trips in the past, but this is the first time he’s allowed himself to be photographed in it in totally everyday situations.
Supported by the family: Michael Fox and his wife Tracy had four children – they would like to appear at their father’s fundraising parties. From left Aquina (27), Schuyler (27), Michael, Tracy, Sam (33) and Esme (20). Photo: Charles Sykes
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I have a wheelchair that I have to use every now and then, and it’s hard, he said recently on “CBS Mornings.”
Also talk about the wheelchair in the past.
It can be a frustrating and isolating experience to let someone else decide which direction I should go and how fast I can travel. He explained in an interview with the Irish Times in 2020.
lifelong struggle
In 1991, life changed for 29-year-old Michael J. Fox. After the “Back to the Future” trilogy, the world was under his feet, and he was about to shoot his twelfth film – “Doc Hollywood”.
I had a strong reaction
But what no one knew was that Fox was in the opening rounds for the toughest fight of his life. He had just learned that the tiny spasms in his little finger were signs of Parkinson’s disease.
Three years ago, he married actress Tracy Pollan, 62, and the couple thought the future looked bright.
Icon: The mad professor and teen witch in the first 1985 film Back to the Future. Photo: Snap Stills/REX/Shutterstock
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So sick leave was very difficult.
– We haven’t been married for a long time when she got this in her lap. But when I told her it was the last time we cried because of the diagnosis together. We haven’t cried over Parkinson’s since. “We just got on with it and get on with our lives,” Fox said on “CBS Mornings.”
The couple did not know what it meant to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
We didn’t know what awaited us. No one can know when I will develop more serious symptoms. At first it was just a small twitch on the little finger. Fox says doctors said he’s on his way.
They told him that at best he could work as an actor for another ten years, but then his career would be over.
– We’ve already lost him so many times
destructive
It will be seven years before the star tells the world about the diagnosis. He did this around the same time that he stopped acting, because the symptoms became very difficult to deal with.
But he was later able to return to his job – several times. In “Designated Survivor” in 2018, he played a lawyer with Parkinson’s disease.
Hit early: Here’s Michael J. Fox in 1991 – the year he received his terrifying Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. Photo: Snap / Shutterstock
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Not being able to speak very well is devastating to an actor. In addition, I find it difficult to remember the lines. Everything has a time, and the time of long working days is behind me, he wrote in his autobiography No Time Like the Future, published in 2020.
Parkinson’s disease is a disease of the brain that gradually destroys the ability to control one’s movements. And while scientists have made major quantum leaps when it comes to treatment, there is no cure.
Michael himself helped fund a lot of research on this disease. Last year, the Michael J. Fox Foundation was able to celebrate raising over 10 billion NOK during these years.
Read also: This is how he lives with the diagnosis
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