SPANISH FORT, Ala. — For 25 years, Sharon Dowdle watched Parkinson’s disease slowly rob her father-in-law of his motor skills but never his dignity.

“It’s a puzzling affliction,” said Dowdle, a registered nurse who helped care for her husband’s father before he passed away last summer at age 81.

“He died of pneumonia, but it was the Parkinson’s he fought every day with such strength and humor. It might have taken his body from him, but he was sharp as a tack to the very end, and we were so blessed to have his wit to keep us all laughing,” she said.

And it’s that laughter Dowdle hopes will envelope the Bluegill Restaurant on Oct. 15, from 5:30 until 10 p.m., where organizers are hosting TeamFox, a fundraiser for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children with all proceeds benefitting the research efforts spearheaded by the foundation’s namesake, actor Michael J. Fox.

Fox has been an outspoken advocate for increased research into the motor system disorder expected to elicit 60,000 new diagnoses in the United States in 2009. An estimated five million people worldwide are believed to be living with the chronic, degenerative neurological disorder that affects one in 100 people 60 and older. It is not uncommon for onset to begin — yet go undiagnosed — by the age of 40, and people as young as 30 have been diagnosed.

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Parkinson’s disease is most likely attributed to the loss of dopamine-producing brain cells, but the underlying cause for the cell loss has not yet been determined.

To date, Fox’s foundation has raised $149 million toward answering such questions and pursuing a cure, and some of the leading research is being conducted right here in Alabama.

In a paper published this week, University of Alabama researchers reported a possible link between a common microorganism found in soil and dopamine-producing nerve cell death.

The theory is that the microorganism produces a toxin that targets those particular brain cells, but researchers involved with the study have couched the findings as early-stage data only and make no assumptions about the implications the data might have toward a cure.

Dowdle is hopeful, however, that efforts toward a cure for Parkinson’s will continue with the same zeal as those sought for cancer and AIDS.

“No one wants to watch the ones they love suffer, not if there’s an explanation out there waiting to be found,” she said.

For more information about TeamFox at the Bluegill or to order tickets, call 455-9919, e-mail info@bluegillrestaurant.com or visit www.bluegillrestaurant.com. For more information on the Michael J. Fox Foundation, visit www.michaeljfox.org.