Claire Wineland

Claire Wineland

Let's go back in time to April 13, 2010. Two days after her 13th birthday, Claire Wineland undergoes the latest in a lifetime of surgeries for her Cystic Fibrosis, a deadly genetic order that makes every breath a struggle and limits the lives and life expectancies of 70,000 children and adults worldwide. 

But what should be a routine procedure sends an infection raging through Claire's body. Within 24 hours, she's in complete lung failure. 

The doctors tell her parents, Melissa and John, that they have two choices: do nothing, and Claire will 100% die, or place Claire into a medically induced coma and put her on an oscillator vent where she will 99.9% die, because no child with Cystic Fibrosis had ever come off of one of these machines alive.

Melissa and John take their chances. Claire goes into a coma and onto a ventilator. And 17 harrowing days later, Claire is not only alive ... but awake.  Over the months of difficult recovery that follow, Claire realizes that if she can live through these constant surgeries and crushing setbacks, so can anyone. 

And that's when she founded Claire's Place Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charity, to provide financial and emotional support to children undergoing Cystic Fibrosis surgeries and extended hospital stays and their families. 

Her website also boasts a "CF University" where Claire presents educational information about living with the disease, and navigating the treatments and hospital stays, with heart and humor.  Her YouTube Channel is "The Clairity Project," where she answers questions and posts videos with titles such as "Perks of Going to the Hospital," "7 Things I've Learned from Being Sick," and "Body Image Lessons from a Sick Kid."

Claire Wineland has appeared in the following PEACE Fund Radio episodes: