On Sunday, YouTube star Claire Wineland was taken off life support after suffering a massive stroke a week earlier. The stroke was the result of a double lung transplant.
Wineland gained fame through her Youtube and Instagram videos, in which she chronicled what it was like living with the progressive disease. In a video from September 2016, Claire explained, “So, I have cystic fibrosis, if you guys didn’t already know that. Which is a chronic illness, I’ve had it my entire life; I was born with it. It causes an overload of mucus in all of my organs… Cystic fibrosis is terminal, meaning it ends in death.” Claire has over 218,620 subscribers to her YouTube page, and 121k followers on Instagram.
Wineland last posted on social media August 26. She uploaded a photo with a friend, and wrote, “So grateful for everything this month. I’m grateful for all the people who donated to help me get through transplant. I’m grateful for the doctors that’ll be scooping out these lungs and giving me some more life to work with. Im grateful for the chance to keep being a person. I’m grateful for my own head and for all the weird things in it. I’m just really overwhelmingly grateful for all of this. There is no passionate rant to be had here I am just happy and thought I would let you all know.”
Over the course of her life, Claire was an activist and fought hard to raise awareness for cystic fibrosis. She created the non-profit organization, Claire’s Place Foundation, which helped support individuals and families who suffered from chronic illnesses. She founded the foundation at just 13-years-old.
Claire is also the author of her own book, Every Breath I Take, Surviving and Thriving with Cystic Fibrosis. On top of that, she was a TEDx speaker.
Since her passing, Claire’s family has taken over her social media accounts. On Tuesday afternoon, Claire’s sister, Ellie, wrote a post on Claire’s Instagram that read, “hey this is Ellie (@ellebell_74 )…. I’m Claire’s little sister and I’d just like to say that I really really appreciate all the kind words that you all are spreading about claire. I know how much it meant to her to have connections with people all around the world and it’s so special to see a group of people who don’t know each other come together in a time of sadness to become such an amazing support network. thank you again… ??”
Wineland accomplished many things over the course of her young life. Not only was she listed as Seventeen Magaine’s 17 Powerful Teens in 2016, but she received the Fox Teen Choice Award in 2015 and the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes and Los Angeles Business Journal’s Small Nonprofit of the Year Award in 2014.