ANNETTE'S DREAM...RAISING PUBLIC AWARENESS ABOUT MS

From Inside MS

Annette Funicello has just published her story, A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes, which follows her life from a dance-school recital at the Burbank Starlite Bowl, where twelve-year-old Annette caught the eye of the legendary Walt Disney, to the challenges of her MS, which she made public in 1992.

Her show business career was a charmed life--from Mouseketeer to Frankie Avalon's heartthrob. But her life changed one evening in 1976 when the room grew suddenly dark, loud bells rang in her ears, and she fell headfirst onto an ornately carved dresser. A skilled plastic surgeon repaired the ghastly cuts on her face...but no one could tell her why she had experienced the fit of dizziness. In 1987, an answer came. Her neurologist said, "multiple sclerosis."

"Life does not have to be 'perfect' to be wonderful," she writes. "I am determined to use my public recognition to do something concrete in the fight against MS."

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