Boxing legend Muhammad Ali is fast losing the battle with Parkinson's disease and might be living the last few months of his life, media reports have said. “His condition has worsened. At this point, he may only have months to live,” a source was quoted by a leading London paper as saying about 63-year-old Ali, who was afflicted with the disease 20 years ago in 1985, around four years after he hung up his boxing gloves.
His daughter Laila, who is also a world famous boxer, in an interview to a Los Angeles newspaper indicated that her father's condition is fast deteriorating. “It is painful because I would love to sit down and talk with my dad about the way he used to be when he was my age and in his prime because we are so much alike. But I can't really share anything with him. I feel like the disease is progressing. Different things start happening, as you get older. I have noticed a change in him, something that goes along with Parkinson's,” she said. Ali's manager Howard Bingham also admitted that Laila 'feels she is losing him (Ali)'.
“He likes doing simple things, to draw and color and do magic tricks. But his attention span is very short. It's his motor skills that Parkinson's affects. So it's like he's trapped inside his body. He can think. He has things he wants to say, but his lips sometimes just don't move to get it out,” 27-year-old Laila added.
However, Harlan Werner, president of Sports Placement Service, Inc, Ali's marketing agency, has said that the report that he has only months to live is false. “Muhammad is fine and he has numerous appearances lined up. He had surgery on his back and was in therapy for that, but that had nothing to do with Parkinson's. He is fine,” he said.
But another source close to the boxing legend confirmed that the disease is taking its toll on Ali. “The guy has always been a battler and he's been fighting Parkinson's as best he can for years. But this is one match he is going to lose no matter how many rounds he goes,” the source said.
Ali, who was crowned the world heavyweight champion thrice, lives in Berrien Springs in Michigan. Due to Parkinson's, a neurological disorder affecting the brain, he suffers from bouts of shaking, impaired coordination of movements and depression.
Ali's other daughter Rasheda has been busy spreading awareness about the disease and has even written a book about Parkinson's called
I'll Hold Your Hand So You Won't Fall: A child's guide to Parkinson's disease . She is in New Zealand to promote the book on the occasion of Parkinson's Awareness Week, which ends on Monday.
“My youngest son would say why is Poppy shaking? How do you explain that intelligently to a 4-year-old? For me, it was part of who dad was. Kids need to know what's going on. Hiding it from them would only do a disservice. We don't want them to grow up not knowing their loved ones,” Rasheda said, while explaining her decision to write the book.
Around one per cent of Americans above the age of 65 years suffer from Parkinson's, a report by National Center for Health Statistics has said. In 2000, around 15,600 succumbed to the disease.
