Actor best known for his role in the “Back to the Future” saga, Michael J. Fox said living with Parkinson’s is becoming “increasingly difficult” and admitted he can’t imagine living with the disease until the age of 80.
In an interview airing on CBS this Sunday, the 61-year-old actor revealed what it’s been like living with the terminal disease since being diagnosed in 1991, when he was just 29 and one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Were.
Despite considering himself optimistic, Fox acknowledged that the disease is “hitting hard” and that tremors are becoming more severe, increasing the risk of falls and fractures.
“I won’t lie. It’s getting tougher, it’s getting tougher. Every day is tougher, but that’s the way things are,” he said with resignation.
The actor told that due to the fall, he has fractured both his arms, elbow, hand and face. In addition, he had spinal surgery for a tumor that turned out to be benign, but affected his ability to walk.
“Falling kills you when you have Parkinson’s. It’s falling down, aspirating food, getting pneumonia. Those are all subtle ways you get the disease. You don’t die from Parkinson’s, you die from Parkinson’s.” die. Yeah, I’m thinking about mortality and all that. And I’m not going to be 80, I’m not going to be 80,” he said.
Despite everything, Fox expressed hope that the foundation he created in 2000 could soon lead to a full or partial cure for Parkinson’s.
Michael J. The Fox Foundation, which has raised $1.5 billion for research, announced this month that it had discovered a marker within the body that could help detect the presence of Parkinson’s, even before symptoms develop.
When Fox was diagnosed in 1991, and for seven years, she tried to hide the advancement of Parkinson’s.
However, once he made it public, the actor decided to dedicate his life to finding a cure.
In the same year, the Apple TV+ platform released a documentary based on his life. Even then (Stay) and in which it is pointed out that Fox could never be “stable”, neither as a promising Hollywood star in the eighties nor later with Parkinson’s tremors.
The documentary reviews Fox’s life at three different stages: his childhood and adolescence until he joined the army, his leap into television and cinema, and his personal battle against Parkinson’s when he was 29 years old.
Fox received an honorary Oscar last year for his contribution to the investigation of the disease.
