You
can be inspired by many things, for example people, books, films and nature.
You know you have been inspired by something when it makes you think
differently about something, or think about something you’ve never thought
before. Something that changes your behavior, your attitude or your decisions
for the future.
When
you think about who inspires you, you are usually drawn towards someone famous
or important. You can also be inspired by people who aren’t necessarily famous,
but have done or are doing something good. Someone who devotes their life to
helping others is inspiring.
At
first I didn’t know what to write about. Movie? Book? Music? A famous person?
When I really thought about it, nothing came to mind. Then I remembered that
only recently, it was back-to-the-future-day. A day people around the world
have been anticipating and waiting for. In 1985, "Back to the Future"
was released. It was about a boy travelling in a time machine invented by his
crazy scientist friend called Doc. Towards the end of the film they travelled
into the future, to the date October 21, 2015. The movie was a huge hit, and
was followed by 2 more films in the series. October 21 was celebrated recently
to commend the fact that they travelled to that date. When thinking about the movie, you think
about the funny and the interesting parts, but there is actually a story behind
the main actor, that not many know about. This story is of Michael J Fox’s.
When his name is mentioned, not everyone knows why he is inspirational apart from
being an actor in a great movie. At the age of 29, at the height of his career,
he was diagnosed with Parkinson's. Parkinson’s is a disease, were the brain
cells (called neurons) become damaged. This makes you to be slower, have a loss
of balance, impaired speech and tremor. You can only imagine, how this would
affect a famous actor's career and daily life. There is no cure, and no one
knows how you get the disease, yet 1 in every 500 people have it. That’s around
127,000 people just in the UK. But it is not the disease that is inspiring, but
the way he dealt with it, and what he’s done in his life since then. At first,
he was very depressed and turned to alcohol. He felt he should keep his disease
a secret, and took medicine so he could continue acting and cover it up. After
7 years, with the support of his family, he decided to turn his life around. He
had a goal in life, and this was to find a cure to the disease. He is known as
the person doing more than anyone else towards the research of Parkinson's.
Michael's decision to tell the public about his condition in 1998, gave those
suffering from the disease a powerful voice. He has started a foundation (Fox
foundation) bringing together the world's best researchers and providing
findings for promising studies. In total he has raised over 300 million pounds
for his charity. He regularly meets with other patients to give them emotional
support and hope for the future.
I
have found Michael J Fox's story inspirational, as he could have chosen to lead
his private life dealing with his condition far from the public eye, but he
chose to stand up and make a difference to the world, and to people with
Parkinson's. In one of his interviews, Michael was asked if you had a time
machine, and you could go back to the past and change the fact that you have
Parkinson's, would you do it? To which Michael answered no. I think that says
it all...
