She and Michael discovered they both had loved ones who have struggled with Parkinson’s as they chatted between scenes on the period drama. It underlines the fact that when someone has a degenerative condition such as Parkinson’s the impact can ripple far beyond the person who has been diagnosed.
As Michael says: “It doesn’t just affect Jane, it affects everyone in the family.”
When someone has Parkinson’s, nerve cells in the brain die and this depletes levels of the chemical messenger dopamine. This leads to muscle stiffness, tremors, slowed movement and speech problems.
These physical symptoms are often also accompanied by more hidden problems such as depression, anxiety, hallucinations and tirednessDopamine is also important for reward pathways in the brain which explains why some medications, such as levodopa, are associated with impulsive and compulsive behaviour.
Despite promising research, including an announcement earlier this month that scientists at Boston University have identified a faulty protein which triggers the death of neural cells, there is no cure for the condition.
Symptoms get steadily worse until old age or another health problem intervenes. It’s thought that more than 127,000 people in the UK have Parkinson’s disease and numbers appear to be rising.
One theory is that exposure to certain chemicals or metals may be a factor but the evidence is far from clear-cut. Michael admits: “I don’t know what I would do in Jane’s situation. Jane is now 56, so she has been living with it for a long time.
She is the bravest person I know. You can see the effect that Parkinson’s has on her body, she suffers from involuntary movements and weakness but it doesn’t stop her doing anything.
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| The TV star and his aunt Jane Moloney who was diagnosed with the disease aged just 42 |
“She has good days and bad days but she just gets on with it.”
Michael, 27, was 10 when his aunt was diagnosed, around the same age as her twin sons Andrew and Mark. Yet the close-knit family shielded him and his cousins from the impact of her diagnosis.
“When I first thought about doing something with Parkinson’s UK I almost felt embarrassed because I knew so little about what she has had to go through,” he says.
Jane has recently undergone deep brain stimulation surgery in the hope of controlling her symptoms. This involved implanting very fine wires with electrodes at the ends into her brain which regulates movement.
These wires are connected to a device similar to a cardiac pacemaker which sends pulses of high-frequency stimulation that alter the brain signals responsible for tremors and stiffness.
It is still early days but Michael says: “She no longer suffers from freezing and she is hopeful that once the frequency is sorted out her tremors will also improve“I think physically that must be the most exhausting thing, it’s not so much the tremors as trying to control them.”
Michael is full of praise for the treatment Jane has received on the NHS but admits he may be a little biased.
“My older brother is a doctor but I have no idea where his brains have come from,” he jokes.
At one time Michael wanted to become an equine vet but says: “That was a distant hope as I wasn’t scientific enough for it.”
After toying with the idea of other horsey careers, including joining the Household Cavalry or mounted police, which were “proper jobs” he decided to pursue his lifelong love of acting and “ended up at drama school because I knew I had to do it properly”.
Michael was taking a break from filming on location in Morocco for the BBC biblical drama The Ark when he was asked to audition for Downton. He says: “As I landed I got a message to say, ‘You have an audition for Downton in two days’.”
The director was impressed with his audition but not with the beard he had grown to play Noah’s son, Shem.
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| Michael Fox and fellow Downton star Laura Carmichael whose grandmother suffers from Parkinson's |
“When you come back have a shave, a wash and look less biblical and more Downton,” he was told.
He admits it was intimidating to join the cast of such a long-established show. “In a good way it’s like a family but to walk into a really close family is quite daunting, it took a few weeks to not feel like the newbie,” he says.
“They were great, a lovely group of people to work with, they made me feel very much at ease.”
The experience has sealed his love for period dramas but Michael also relishes the discipline and physical demands of the theatre because for the next few weeks he will be treading the boards with Downton’s lord of the manor Hugh Bonneville in a production of An Enemy Of The People at the Chichester Festival Theatre.
“Theatre takes a certain level of fitness,” he explains.
“And people’s body shapes have changed a lot, I think people were a lot fitter back then.”
So when he is not working he is working out in the gym and trying to raise awareness and funding for Parkinson’s UK.
Symfunny, a night of comedy and music, takes place at the Royal Albert Hall on April 19, 2017.
See parkinsons.org.uk/symfunny for tickets. Visit parkinsons.org.uk or call the helpline on 0808 800 0303.
An Enemy Of The People runs at the Chichester Festival Theatre until May 21. Visit Cft.org.uk
http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/664194/Downton-Abbey-Michael-Fox-Parkinsons
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