Michael’s Regrets?

First Published: May 9, 2006 1:16 PM EDT Credit: Access Hollywood

Caption billy bush michael j. fox ah interview

-- “You were diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991,” Billy Bush said. “You came out about it in 1998, right, so seven years later. With the amount of success you’ve had with the foundation, do you wish you got started earlier?”

“In a way,” Michael said. “I don’t have very many regrets in life. Maybe one of them but then on the other side of it, it took me another seven years to get myself together and be ready and step up and do this.”

“I kind of reached a peace with it, so, then I was able then to look around and say, wow, I am part of a community here and it looks like I have an opportunity and maybe a responsibility to help out,” Michael explained.

In a big way! In 2000, Michael J. Fox established his foundation to accelerate and expand funding for worldwide research to find a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

To date, the foundation has raised nearly $74 million and now, Michael has brought his cause to Los Angeles.

“We’re all here for the same reason, which is Michael J. Fox,” Garry Shandling announced at the L.A. fundraiser.

Billy attended the star-studded gala on the grounds of an exclusive Beverly Hills home that raised $1.2 million.

Garry hosted while Aimee Mann serenaded the crowd that included, of course, Michael’s wife of almost 18 years, Tracy Pollan and his good friend, Matthew Perry.

“When you see him out here and you know what it takes for him to come out to an event like this, the huge cocktail of medicine he takes to keep it under control, how do you feel when you look at him, when you see him laying it all out there,” Billy asked.

“He’s just heroic, and it would be very easy for him to just kind of hide away, and what he has done in making it public is just made a huge amount of money for this foundation,” Matthew said. “He is just a really courageous guy. We all can learn a lot from him.”

Access Hollywood

Michael’s Regrets?

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