Michael Battles Parkinson’s

Baby-faced actor, Michael J Fox has been suffering from the 'old man' affliction, Parkinson's Disease, for more than seven years, he has revealed. The 37-year-old Back To The Future Star has undergone brain surgery to try and correct the crippling disorder. But the disease has slowly spread to his hips, hands, feet and the whole of his left side and, he says, at times, the shakes get so bad that he could 'mix a margarita in five seconds'. The "damn short" star (he hates being called diminutive), who currently has the lead in the hit Channel 4 series, Spin City, has kept his condition under wraps since he first noticed 'a twitch' in 1991 - even asking his driver to circle the block three times before pulling up to the Golden Globe awards last January, while he waited for his tremors to fully subside. Fox says, "It's not that I had a deep, dark secret. It was just my thing to deal with. I think I can help people by talking. I want to help myself and my family." Fox says, "It was incomprehensible. The doctor said I would be able to function for years and years. But even talking in those terms was strange." Parkinson's Disease is an incurable neurological disorder that destroys brain cells which produce a chemical important for movement. Some patients are left unable to walk, talk or care for themselves. Former boxing champ, Muhammed Ali, 56, is another sufferer.