Claire Wineland has cystic fibrosis, a genetic, chronic and progressive disease, and will probably die in the next few years. She’s hoping to reach 21 so she can go clubbing just once. In her short life, she has written a book, given two Ted Talks, started a charitable foundation and won numerous awards.
She also has one of the best attitudes of any young woman we’ve ever come across. She wants to use her voice to normalise death, and conversations about death. She says that while people don’t necessarily have a bad reaction when her death is mentioned, they don’t know how to react. While her life is challenged, and will be shorter than most, Claire is not at all bitter, and that’s the reason she has been able to connect with so many people over such a hard subject.
Claire talks about illness, and what its like to be dying on her youtube channel. Once you start watching her videos, you can’t help but love her, want to be friends with her, and hope that the world gets to keep her for as long as possible. We wanted to share all of her clips, but here’s our favourite to get you started…. (don’t mind the emotional dude in the sparkly jacket, he goes away after a minute).
In the video, Claire says that life is complex, we have good times and bad, and we should embrace both equally. She says “We can’t chase happiness, we need to chase deep satisfaction and pride.” Never a truer word was spoken.
CF causes an overload of mucus in the body, which forms a tar like substance, which sticks to your lungs and other organs. It affects about 1200 children and adults in the Ireland (70,000 worldwide). You can find out more about it here.
You can follow Claire at:
Twitter @clairewineland or @clarityproject
Instagram: @clairesplacefoundation
