Michael J. Fox is "grateful" for the life he has.

The 61-year-old actor was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991 - but Michael is determined to retain a positive outlook on life.

He explained: "The alternative isn't good, so, no, I just love life and it's a matter of acceptance.

"The more you accept, the more you are grateful for it, because you see the contrast between what's good and what's not and what you have in your life. My family, my career and the people I meet every day."

The actor founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2000 to help fund research into Parkinson's disease.

And Michael feels proud of what they've managed to achieve.

He told 'Entertainment Tonight': "It's so humbling to have started this more than 20 years ago in 2000 with the idea of advancing research in Parkinson's, finding a cure, hopefully, and what we discovered along the way is that you can't do anything without the patients.

"For so long, the patients were the neglected part of the process and it happens in all kinds of disease studies and disease research, that they tend to hurry past the patient to try to find the answer."

The 'Back to the Future' star also revealed that he was quick to seize the "opportunity" to create the foundation.

He explained: "I'm an actor, I'm like a goofball and I stumbled into this situation - not that anyone wanted to design for themselves - but I recognised it immediately as a real opportunity.

"All these people coming to me, relaying their stories and identifying with mine - and empathy and sympathy all combined ... We don't get this opportunity very often. So I do my best to seize it and grab some people that were smart, and we launched into it."