The Michael J. Fox Foundation Gets Results
The latest treatment for Parkinson’s disease was made possible by the actor’s audacious mission.
Actors Tracy Pollan and Michael J. Fox at a fundraiser last year. The foundation spends what it raises — no squirreling away for an endowment.
Photographer: Cindy Ord/Getty Images
“It’s a lousy1 disease to have,” said Michael J. Fox.
He was speaking, of course, about Parkinson’s disease, which the well-known actor, now 57, has had for nearly half his life. Like most Parkinson’s sufferers, Fox is afflicted with uncontrollable tremors and halting speech, among other symptoms. But he’s has never been one to complain about his illness, and he wasn’t doing so when I spoke to him the other day. He was simply trying to explain to me the importance of a new Parkinson’s medication that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved earlier this month.