Emilia Clarke is a national treasure. Over the course of nearly a decade on Game of Thrones, she has slain countless enemies, mothered three dragons, and generally bucked the patriarchy as Daenerys Targaryen – not to mention become an advocate for gender equality and body positivity in real life. Yet, in a moving essay published by The New Yorker, the 32-year-old revealed yesterday that her personal journey has actually been just as tumultuous as Khaleesi’s, a fact she somehow managed to keep a secret through all her years filming the blockbuster fantasy epic. Naturally, the reveal was met with a frenzy in the press and on social media, with an outpouring of dramatic headlines and messages of support from her legions of fans.
In brief, just after wrapping the first season, Clarke suffered a life-threatening aneurysm at just 24 years old, with another one following a few years later. Her description of her surgeries is a painful (if necessary) reminder of the horror of brain injury. Of the second, more invasive procedure, she writes: “I looked as though I had been through a war more gruesome than any that Daenerys experienced. I emerged from the operation with a drain coming out of my head. Bits of my skull had been replaced by titanium. These days, you can’t see the scar that curves from my scalp to my ear, but I didn’t know at first that it wouldn’t be visible.”
Perhaps more important than her acute treatment, however, is what happened after she left the operating room. Following her first surgery in London in 2011, Clarke experienced aphasia – a condition that left her incapable of remembering her own full name. The experience nearly broke her: “I could see my life ahead, and it wasn’t worth living. I am an actor; I need to remember my lines.” Naturally, her second procedure in New York in 2013 triggered yet more frantic worry about cognitive loss. “Would it be concentration? Memory? Peripheral vision? Now I tell people that what it robbed me of is good taste in men. But, of course, none of this seemed remotely funny at the time,” she writes.
What enabled her to recover fully (and conquer the world as Daenerys) was the quality of aftercare she received – a service available to a limited number of patients around the world. “The degree to which people can adapt and face the future after neurological trauma is dependent on the quality and provision of rehabilitation care,” Clarke shares on the website for her newly-launched charity, SameYou. “As more people recover from brain injury and stroke because of improvements in acute care, we urgently need a major initiative to propel neurorehabilitation support services to the forefront.” Despite its relatively low profile in public health discussions, traumatic brain injury is in fact the leading cause of mortality in young adults. SameYou will work in partnership with the Royal College of Nursing, Stroke Association, Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, and Nursing Now to increase both funding and research.
In typically self-deprecating fashion, Clarke took to Instagram Stories to speak directly to her 19.1 million followers about the news, saying: “So, today is a doubly important day. Number one, I launched a charity, which is… sizeable. Number two, I learned how to use Instagram stories, possibly the more important one… There’s this thing where you swipe up – ahhh! – and that takes you straight to the charity webpage.” She continued on her main feed: “I kept quiet about something that’s happened to me for quite a few years…And I really sincerely would love to hear what you think. I’d love to hear your stories. Because that’s why I started this.” SameYou is now taking donations through its JustGiving page – and has racked up 37,000 followers on Instagram in less than 24 hours. Khaleesi would be proud.
