Michael J. Fox has stated that he does not expect to live to reach his 80th birthday.
The Back to the Future actor, 61, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when he was only 29 years old in 1991.
He’s been candid about his fight with the neurological condition, which produces involuntary movements including shaking, stiffness, and trouble with balance and coordination, in the years afterwards.
He helped generate almost $1 billion (£795,000,000) by establishing The Michael J Fox Foundation, which was intended to help promote every potential research avenue to cure Parkinson’s disease.
However, the actor has recently stated that he has been thinking more about his own mortality.
‘I’m not gonna be 80. I’m not going to lie, it’s getting hard, it’s getting harder. Every day is tougher. But, but that’s – that’s the way it is,’ he said in a preview clip for his upcoming appearance on CBS’ Sunday Mornings.
In a recent interview on his foundation’s efforts, Michael stated that the team was instrumental in the discovery of a biomarker for Parkinson’s disease.
‘It’s a biomarker, a way to identify the disease before the disease is present. By the time I was diagnosed, I had a little twitch in my pinky but…with this, we can identify the disease really early and help progression and essentially cure ahead of the game,’ he told Entertainment Tonight.
He argued earlier this year that, despite his health issues, he ‘didn’t have time to feel sorry’ for himself.
Last month, after a screening of his documentary Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, the actor said he needed to’show up and do the best I can’ to assist discover a treatment for Parkinson’s.
He went on to say that he didn’t ‘had time’ to be sorry for himself.
‘Pity is a benign form of abuse. I can feel sorry for myself, but I don’t have time for that,’ he said.
‘There is stuff to be learned from this, so let’s do that and move on.’
Aside from the Back to the Future trilogy, Michael has appeared in Teen Wolf, The Secret of My Success, and, more recently, The Good Fight.
While he has continued to act since the diagnosis, he has stated that the condition has made it more difficult for him to memorise lines.
‘When I did the spinoff from The Good Wife, which is The Good Fight, I couldn’t remember the lines. I just had this blank, I couldn’t remember the lines,’ explained on Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out podcast.
He said that he now struggles to learn pages upon pages of dialogue, so will ‘go to the beach’ instead.
Source My Celebrity Life.