- Action.
My name is Claire Wineland.
- Kendrick Evans.
- Darth Vader.
- Isabel Bueso.
- Jess Oldwyn.
- Kat Lazo.
I have terminal gastric cancer.
- I am living with something called cystic fibrosis
- Leukemia.
- MPS 6.
- I have terminal sleep apnea.
- And I am living with terminal brain cancer.
- Thank you for calling Sunrise Orthodontics,
this is Kat, how may I assist you?
The doctor's name is Doctor Chamberlain.
There's been a lot going on,
there's a lot of changes in my life.
On July 7th, after three months of testing,
my doctor said, "Kat, there is no more cancer."
And I like freaked.
The crazy part, though, of this whole thing,
is that I had a hard time coping with that.
It was harder than finding out I had cancer.
Because for once I didn't know what was gonna happen.
- Me sharing my story with the world,
at first I was a little hesitant about it.
But now I know that God takes certain people
through certain things to help other people.
About two months ago I started working out.
I work out two days a week.
I used to sit in my car, 30 minutes,
just sit there and have to talk myself into going in.
But after like the fourth time going,
I'm eager to get up and go work out.
And what really makes me work out now
is when, you know, when I be walking,
and people say, oh you're losing weight,
oh okay, thank you.
That lets me know that, okay,
I'm losing weight, I got this, I got this.
- So if you open up, the design is based off of the desert,
which sounds horribly boring.
But I make it sort of cool.
The past year was like,
I think the first year of my life where
I really realized that I had to
kind of take everything I did really, really seriously.
I felt myself slipping health wise a lot,
and I knew I didn't have as much energy as I did before
to do everything I needed to do.
And I kind of have just been trying to figure out
what to prioritize, and what I care about,
and what's important to me,
and what I actually want to be saying.
I'm winging it, and it seems to be working so far.
- Last year, I ended up running one full marathon,
one triathlon, 25 Tough Mudders, and 40 half marathons.
At that point, my leg was just annihilated and
luckily it just happened that
I was able to connect with the right people,
and get my leg amputated.
And since I've had my leg amputated,
I have competed in seven triathlons,
I needed to get back up again.
And after having such a major surgery,
I needed to prove to myself,
you know, in a safe way, sort of,
that I was able to do it.
- I'm a senior now in my last year of college.
And I'm also the new director of my campus.
That means that every person in the whole campus,
and I have like different duties like,
organize events, help to students,
go to board meetings.
It is a lot of work but, you know,
when you care about something,
and you want to make a difference,
all I could do, I just try my best.
- You want the end of this. - Yeah.
Around this time last year,
the MRIs started to see very small changes.
You know I look normal, I felt awesome.
We just kind of went for it.
So we had a brain surgery on Dan's birthday.
They were able to remove everything
that they could safely remove.
Right now we're on an every three month schedule of MRIs.
It's a day by day process.
Oh, that's delicious.
Here's the biggest part, since the surgery,
knock on wood, I have not had a seizure yet.
That's a big deal.
- You know, living with leukemia,
and the disorders that I have,
I am chronically fatigued.
Like I really have to force myself to get up every day.
I've been living with this for so long now,
it's something that I just have to deal with.
- It's my dad.
He's been through like everything in my life.
Every milestone.
I just want him to be there for everything.
I just don't want to lose him.
- Knowing that Alexis has graduated college,
and she works hard, gives me a sense of relief
that I really don't have to put so much emphasis on
raising my daughter.
That job's been done.
Now my job is to be there unconditionally for her
and to support her when she needs me.
All right, I'll talk to you soon.
- Okay. Bye.
- Bye.
Drive fast, take chances.
- Come here, girl.
For about a month or two, I've been feeling not so good.
And we've done more tests and more tests.
- Sit down.
- And we're waiting to see what happens.
It's scary.
Because I've done everything possible to cure myself.
Changed my diet, the people around me,
the things that I do, the things that I don't do.
In making all those changes, I found her.
And she has shown to be the most beautiful person I know.
- Excuse me, the champion's coming through.
- Oh wait, what?
- Ouch.
- The new thing right now with my health
is that the right side of my heart is going faster,
for some reason.
And right now I'm just waiting for results.
It is scary,
but I'm trying my best to just be relaxed.
And what I do every morning and almost every night
is listen to music .
Music helps me.
'Cause when you feel the music,
you don't want to just sit there.
You want to, you want to go.
- [Announcer] So the warmest, loudest,
best welcome we've given anybody,
please welcome Claire Wineland to the stage.
- The last few years, we've all been
trying to encourage her to get a lung transplant.
But when she turned 18 and became an adult,
she told us very clearly that it's just not for her.
And it's her path, so we have to respect that.
- See when I was born, my life expectancy was 10 years old.
I knew that I wasn't gonna live very long.
Both my parents have been trying to find things
to make me better, to stall the process,
or to find miracles.
But at the same time, there's a level of just
kind of stepping back that has to occur
when you have a terminal illness.
And now kind of what happens, happens.
- So my right side, from this last surgery,
I couldn't feel it at all.
And now I can feel a little bit.
I can write a little, my hand gets fatigued.
I think what's so interesting is that,
I don't think people look at me and they're like,
hm, she just went through something.
Which is awesome because it's nice to have that anonymity,
and just be a normal person.
- You know I could just sit around and be depressed all day
about how I'm hurting and I'm sore,
or I could stay positive and fight through
and whatever time I do have,
I want to be able to pack in as much as I can.
And then when It's time to like,
then I can be like, all right.
And I can be satisfied with that.
- All right, hot potato one, two,
three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Couple days ago I shared my story
with some of the kids from my Boys and Girls Club.
And a lot of them, they knew Mr. Kendrick was sick,
but they didn't know how serious it was.
- Since you've been through so much,
I want to change my action and attitude,
and I want to thank you for this experience
you had gave all of us.
- If your story can make a difference
in a three year old's life, a 65 year old life,
in a 20 year old life, it's worth living for.
Clap.
Ah, right here.
- Even though I have a condition,
or I go through surgery,
or I have problem, that now aren't problems,
I'm happy.
I'm happy, I'm blessed.
I am who I am, and I love it.
- Being aware of the people that are willing to love me
for me has helped me in making better
decisions about my life.
When you have good people around you
like I have good people around me,
you just become a better person.
- I was telling my kids today,
that there was a time where I was afraid to go to sleep,
because I thought I was going to die in my sleep.
But now I'm at peace with myself.
And so, I mean, if that was the case to happen,
I mean I know that I gave, I know that I served,
and I know that I made a difference.
I'm good.
- I tell people, you know,
we all have our own cross we have to bear.
But not to be defined by that situation or circumstance.
Sometimes that's the nature of life regardless
if there's a life altering health issue or not.
- This last year has been,
I think the most spiritual growth I've ever had.
I don't need to be able to write perfectly right now.
I don't need to have everything done.
I'm enjoying the process.
Just allowing myself to just be.
- Maybe we should stop fighting everything
that we think needs changing.
And start fighting for something.
A lot of pressure for me to be
the person that I want to be before I die.
Even if I don't get to do all the many things
I want to do with my life.
There's a sort of simple beauty to it all.
I don't want to make this video.
It hurts everything inside of me to have to make this video.
So, pretty much, I'm getting new lungs.
And it's very exciting and,
I mean also completely terrifying but exciting.
But I can't work, and you need tons of money
to be able to get through a transplant.
I have a GoFundMe.
Ah, I'm so uncomfortable.
Yeah, there's a GoFundMe link down below,
and I would be tremendously grateful if you donated.
Have a great day, you know,
go enjoy your life, really.
I mean seriously, not in a sarcastic way,
go enjoy it 'cause,
there's people who are fighting like hell for it.
You know.
So, there you go, adios amigos.
There's so much that I want to say,
and there's no way,
there's no way for me to even articulate
what you guys have done for me.
I don't have any words, really,
to say how grateful I am.
There's no way to describe it.
So I guess now is just a matter of getting the lungs
and like doing this, you know?
So, I guess let's do this.
It's terrifying to be invested in life.
One of the most terrifying things you can do
because you know inevitably, at the end, you're gonna lose.
But it's also the thing that makes your life
really worth anything.
This year has been a big testament to caring
and to throwing yourself into things,
even though you know you're gonna lose.
That's kinda where I'm at.
So in the end, I'm not even really losing.
Yeah.
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