Claire Wineland

Claire Lucia Wineland (April 10, 1997 – September 2, 2018) was an American activist, author, speaker and social media personality. She died from a blood clot one week after receiving a double lung transplant at the age of 21.

Wineland and a friend, Chynna Bracha Levin, wrote the book Every Breath I Take, Surviving and Thriving with Cystic Fibrosis, published by BusinessGhost, Inc. on September 21, 2012.

Personal life Wineland was born with cystic fibrosis in Austin, Texas. She enjoyed performing from a young age and appeared in The Music Man at age four. She was given a 1% chance of survival and awoke after 16 days.

Wineland was chosen to be the keynote speaker at AARC Congress, the 63rd International Respiratory Convention and Exhibition. She was a TEDx speaker and spoke at a number of conferences worldwide. She appeared in an episode of Red Band Society and in the documentary series My Last Days.

Clairity Project and YouTube channel The Clairity Project is a website featuring a series of educational videos and vlogs hosted on YouTube which hope to inspire and educate others about living with a terminal illness.

Wineland continued to operate her YouTube channel and uploaded nine videos prior to her death.

Death On August 26, 2018, Wineland underwent a double lung transplant. Shortly after the surgery, Wineland suffered an ischemic stroke due to a blood clot which "cut off blood flow to the right side of her brain."

Legacy In 2016, Wineland was listed as one of Seventeen magazine's 17 Power Teens. She was a Fox Teen Choice Award honoree in 2015 and received the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes In 2025, Claire's mother, Melissa Yeager, who has carried on as the executive director of the Claire's Place Foundation since Claire's passing, won the Los Angeles Business Journal's Nonprofit Executive of the Year award.

The 2019 film Five Feet Apart was inspired by and dedicated to Wineland, who served as a consultant on the film.

Documentary YouTube Originals released "Claire," a documentary about Wineland, which was directed and produced by Academy Award winner Nicholas Reed (“The Lady in Number 6”) and Ryan Azevedo ("Unpinned") and produced by Paul Foley (“Unpinned”). It was released on the first anniversary of Wineland's death. The documentary also features clips from an uncompleted vlog Wineland had filmed to document her lung transplant experience and intended recovery.