Iconic actor Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991 and has since devoted his life to finding a cure for the nervous system disorder via his Michael J. Fox Foundation. Now he’s giving ‘Back to the Future’ fans the opportunity to win a pair of Marty McFly-inspired self-lacing shoes (which they’re calling Nike Mags) -- with all proceeds going towards the foundation's research efforts.
A total of 89 pairs of these special kicks will be raffled off or auctioned between an online raffle on October 11, 2016 and auctions held by Nike and at the foundation's yearly gala. For complete details go to MichaelJFox.org.
Think that it’s only older folks who are ‘Back to the Future’ devotees and might want to get their hands on these shoes? Think again. Fox says he has young kids running up to him all the time, saying, “Marty! Marty!”
“When I got my pinky twitch for the first time, 60 percent of my dopamine-producing brain cells were already gone. So if we can find that earlier, we can then treat it earlier, and we can come up with all kinds of answers. So it’s great work,” says Fox. And the research that the foundation is doing has the potential to affect many other diseases, too, he adds.
The Nike Mag raffle isn’t the first off-the-beaten-path fundraiser Fox’s organization has done -- his "Team Fox" has raised $50 million (the foundation has funded over $600 million altogether) for research in all sorts of inventive ways – from running marathons to baking pancakes. Turns out Doc was right when he said, “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.”
