COMMUNITY
THE MICHAEL J . FOX FOUNDATION 2023 YEAR IN REVIEW
A Year for Michael ’ s Singular Place in History
Iconic actor . Global celebrity . Best-selling author . There are many ways to label the extraordinary career of Michael J . Fox . But despite the accolades and his meteoric rise to fame , Michael points to the Foundation as his greatest source of professional pride .
Arising from Michael ’ s extraordinary vision to accelerate the search for a cure , the Foundation has become the world ’ s leading Parkinson ’ s organization and a model for a new kind of disease research stakeholder , one that can uniquely drive impact across the biomedical research enterprise .
Michael ’ s optimism , willingness to do the hard work and purity of motive have been baked into the Foundation ’ s DNA since its beginnings . This year , his leadership has taken center stage once again through his starring turn in the documentary Still : A Michael J . Fox Movie . The award-nominated film showcases his vertiginous rise to fame in 1980s Hollywood , while candidly sharing the realities of his three decades living with Parkinson ’ s . Once again , Michael leads through vulnerability , shining a light on the challenges that he and so many others with Parkinson ’ s continue to face .
It ’ s fitting ( and coincidental !) that Still debuted within weeks of the Foundation announcing the discovery of the aSyn-SAA biomarker , the most important scientific breakthrough in the Foundation ’ s history . As he wrote in leading biomedical news outlet STAT : “ Maybe it ’ s just my perennial optimism , but in the glow of our great leap forward I feel especially positive . Making ourselves ready for biology ’ s century is hard work , but we can do it . After all , if not us , who ?”
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