Michael's Parkinson's battle 'FAMILY TIES KEEP ME STRONG'

There's no talk of the actor giving up, even after some incredibly hard breaks

It's been 32 years since Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. In that time, he has battled everything from depression to memory problems - but he says this past year has been his worst yet.

"I broke my cheek, then my hand," the Back to the Future star shared recently about a series of falls that have blighted his life. "Then my shoulder... I had a replacement shoulder put in and broke my right arm, then? I broke my elbow.

"I was never really a cranky guy, but I got very cranky and short with people. I try to nip it in the bud. I always think of these aides who work with me. And I often say to them, 'Whatever I say, just imagine I said 'Please' at the beginning and 'Thank you' at the end. Just take a second and absorb that I might have said that if I was more myself, but I didn't, so I apologize."

While the past year has been tough on the 61-year-old, there was a bright spot recently when he was presented with an honorary Oscar for his decades of advocacy work with Parkinson's. He received a standing ovation as fellow actor Woody Harrelson handed him his statue at the Governor's Awards in Los Angeles and the star said with his trademark humour, "I refer to Parkinson's as the gift that keeps on taking."

Michael was just 29 when in 1991 he was given the shocking news that he had the progressive, neurological condition that destroys cells in the part of the brain that controls movement.