Michael J. Fox has received another honor by Canadian government for his Parkinson’s disease activism.
The 65-year-old actor, who has been battling Parkinson’s disease for 35 years and has been actively advocating for Parkinson’s disease since 1998, visited the official residence of the governor general of Canada on Friday, where he was awarded the companion level of the Order of Canada, the highest civilian honor awarded to Canadians.
Fox was promoted to the companion ranking for his “powerful global advocacy and unflinching honesty about Parkinson’s,” as reported by CBC.
Governor General Louise Arbour stated during the ceremony, “Your example reminds us of something that’s very fundamental: sustainable progress requires that we move forward with courage, imagination and determination.”
He continued, “After all, back to the future has always been a much better idea than forward to the past.”
Fox also spoke about the honor and also expressed his love for his home country.
“It’s so many things. But mostly it’s just growing up in Canada, loving this country, loving what it stands for and how it’s progressed and corrected course when it needed to, and stayed the course when it needed to,” via CBC.
He further gushed, “I picked all that up growing up. I love Canadian music, I love that Canadian content thing. At the end, you have a 65-year-old guy who’s uniquely Canadian because of all those things.”
The honor for Fox was announced earlier this year. The Canadian government previously made him an officer in 2011.
