As I travel across the country speaking about MS, perhaps I can offer others comfort and hope.

The remark frames public speaking not as self-promotion but as service: Funicello casts her travel and advocacy around multiple sclerosis as a way to convert personal hardship into communal benefit. The emphasis on “comfort and hope” suggests a patient-to-patient ethic—visibility, candor, and solidarity can reduce isolation and fear for others facing a chronic, unpredictable illness. Implicitly, the quote also reflects the role of celebrity testimony in health advocacy: by lending her recognizable voice to MS education, she aims to normalize discussion of the disease and encourage resilience, support-seeking, and optimism even when cure is uncertain.