Michael J. Fox has spent more than three decades living with Parkinson\u2019s disease, openly sharing how it shapes his daily life and his hopes for the future. Diagnosed at 29, he has become one of the most recognizable advocates for Parkinson\u2019s research, using his platform to raise over $2 billion through the Michael J. Fox Foundation while continuing to appear in public as his condition allows. He recently co-wrote the memoir “Future Boy,” reflecting on 1985, when he was filming “Family Ties” during the day and “Back to the Future” at night, and earlier this year he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his long-running work raising awareness and funding. In a conversation with People, he explained that he starts each day by assessing what his body can handle, saying he gets \u201cnew challenges physically\u201d but finds ways to get through them, including getting used to rolling around in a wheelchair.Fox has largely stopped walking because the risk of falling has grown too high. Speaking to The Times, he recalled that in a three-year period he broke his elbow, broke his hand, suffered a serious infection in that hand, and nearly lost a finger, leading him to \u201ctake it easy\u201d and avoid walking much, which he now calls \u201ca bit dangerous.\u201d He has also said that people do not die from Parkinson\u2019s itself but with it, and he does not expect to reach 80. While promoting “Future Boy,” he shared that after 35 years with Parkinson\u2019s he hopes for a quiet passing, saying he would like to \u201cjust not wake up one day\u201d rather than experience a dramatic accident. Even so, he told Entertainment Tonight that the disease has become his everyday reality and that his focus remains on what the wider community can still do, from finding a cure to creating groundbreaking treatment centers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Michael J. Fox has spent more than three decades living with Parkinson\u2019s disease, openly sharing how it shapes his daily life and his hopes for the future…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n