“A Battle For My Life” How Game Of Thrones Star Survived Her Darkest Moments

By Mayukh Saha / Truth Theory

Game of Thrones is in its last season now. And while this cult show has many characters, Emilia Clarke is at the forefront. Clarke plays Daenerys Targaryen, the Queen of the Andals, the Mother of Dragons, and the Breaker of Chains and so forth. But while she has battled death attempts on her life in the show, she has also battled for her life in real life. Yes, she has survived two brain aneurysms. 

The first attack came during the first season of the show, when she was stressed about the premiere of the show, and how they had to campaign for its publicity. All that added stress got to her, and she felt a dull throbbing in her head, which suddenly turned into a full blown migraine pain. In order to distract herself, she started reciting her lines, but thankfully someone saw her mumbling, and took her to a hospital. After a scan, it was found that she had an arterial rupture, and that had led to her brain aneurysm. After a three hour surgery, she woke up in extreme pain and aphasia. She couldn’t pronounce her own name even. But slowly, due to the hard work of the nursing department of the hospital, she recovered. So much, so that she was ready in a  month to go on a world tour with her cast in order to promote the show.

Yet, she never forgot the pain, or the gratitude towards the nurses. And that pain did scare her, made her think it could happen again. Unfortunately, it did.

In the third season of GOT, she had another attack that left even more of a scar on her mind. This time, the pain was even more unbearable, and she owes it to her strong character in the TV show that helped her recover, and grow stronger by the day. After she recovered, she founded an organisation called SAMEYOU.org, which was designed to help those who survived brain stroke, and aneurysms.

Her decision to start this organisation is obviously derived from her own experiences. She talks about how recovery can be improved and made so much better, if the support provided is top notch. She is the ambassador of the Royal College of Nursing, and believes that young people go through a lot to rebuild their lives. Hence, a proper rehabilitation and funding towards the same could maximise the recovery potential of an individual. To ensure that it doesn’t happen, her organisation is determined to provide rehabilitation for the patients.

As an ambassador, she started a fundraising campaign for the RCN Foundation. People could have donated through Omaze and the winner could have met the Mother of Dragons. The funds would be used to support specialist nurses.