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Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox on being told at 29 that he had Parkinson's

Michael J. Fox has talked publicly for years about being told, at 29, that he had Parkinson's disease. In a radio interview with Howard Stern he described his first reaction as refusal — this was not supposed to be happening to a man in the middle of his career, and he was not an eighty-five-year-old man. He said the doctor told him not to worry, that he had about another ten good years of work left in him. He described the time that followed as being stuck in the middle of the road with cement feet, hearing a bus coming without knowing how fast it was travelling or how hard it would hit. He did not tell the public straight away, and said that when it became known everyone had an opinion about it. That, he said, helped him work out that the only opinion that mattered was his own. He described going to Congress early on to give evidence about funding for Parkinson's research and deliberately not taking his medication first, because he wanted the people deciding to see what the condition does to a person. He has also been open about coping badly at first. He said he began drinking heavily and alone, then stopped, went through about a year with nothing to put in its place, and later went into therapy — after which it started to become clear to him that this was not a death sentence and that he could live a day at a time. Speaking to CBS Mornings in 2023, more than three decades on, he said his positivity is sincere but hard won, and that as someone with an athlete's ego and bravado he hid his fear for a long time and is now more open with himself and his family about the days when he is struggling. The programme said he was diagnosed in 1991 at 29, has lived with the condition for more than half his life, and that the foundation he set up in 2000 has funded close to two billion dollars of Parkinson's research, including a study that identified a protein in spinal fluid that can help detect the disease, in some cases years before the first symptoms appear. Nothing here is medical advice. Parkinson's affects different people very differently. The NHS says to see a GP if you are worried that you may have symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

• Parkinson's disease