- 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. ♪ Soul Pancake ♪ ♪ Subscribe ♪
