Michael J. Fox on PPMI

Dear Friend,

I wanted to personally welcome you to the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI). Whether you’re still weighing the possibility of joining, or you’ve already enrolled, you have my deepest thanks for being part of our mission to speed breakthrough treatments for Parkinson’s disease.

I’m grateful you’re here because, if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that better treatments aren’t going to fall from the sky. Real challenges stand in the way of the results we need, and it’s up to all of us to get involved and meet those challenges however we can. By participating in PPMI, you can do just that.

Our Foundation has been funding various biomarker projects for years. Now the time has come for a concerted, unified effort that will optimize our chances for results. With your help, we’re ready to roll up our sleeves and get it done. Everything we’ve learned up to now has put us in position to work with the hundreds of partners — study volunteers, scientists, clinicians, funders — who are coming together to make PPMI a reality.  

At our Foundation, we don’t like to pat ourselves on the back. But I hope you’ll give yourself one for raising your hand to be part of this effort. The thoughtful engagement of people like you is the only thing that can help meet a major need for participants in clinical research. Across all diseases, 85 percent of trials finish late because of difficulty with enrollment. That is being felt by all of us in the form of slower progress toward cures. Today, you are part of the solution.

I have experienced profound benefits — some of the richest of my life — from taking action to meet challenges I never even saw coming. Parkinson’s was a choice that was made for me, but once I accepted that, I found a freedom to do incredible things that I would never have known about under other circumstances. It’s amazing; it’s a gift. And I believe we all have that freedom.

Thank you again for being part of something that could change everything for the five million Parkinson’s patients worldwide.

              All my best,


              Michael J. Fox

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