Emilia Clarke’s mother has described how her daughter’s brain haemorrhage changed the Clarke family “in an instant”.
Jenny Clarke said it feels like her daughter’s brain haemorrhage – a bleed on the brain – “feels like yesterday” even though it was more than a decade ago.
The incident, which took place when Clarke was working out in a north London gym in 2011, was “completely out of the blue”, Mrs Clarke said.
She said her daughter fought to stay conscious even though she was in “the worst pain she could ever imagine”.
Mrs Clarke told PA: “It feels like yesterday to us really, because it was just such a profound shock.
“She had just started Game Of Thrones, the first season had been filmed and she had just come back from a press tour.
“And then she had her first brain haemorrhage which was completely out of the blue – it was a morning in March and she was in the gym and she suddenly felt this terrible pain in her head – she’s been quoted as saying it was the worst pain she could ever imagine.
“She also realised that something was seriously wrong with her because the pain was so intense.
“So she did her best, as she was lying semi-unconscious on the floor of the gym, to try and make sure she kept a sense of what was around her and she fought to make sure that she didn’t lose consciousness.”
Mrs Clarke added: “When she was rushed to a hospital in London, it was very difficult to establish what has happened to her – and that’s also something that we think is very important; maybe there isn’t enough specialist information and training to actually recognise what happens when you have a brain haemorrhage when you’re young.
“People expect people to have strokes and brain haemorrhages when they’re older, it’s a problem of older age, but Emelia was 23 when she had her first brain haemorrhage, so people didn’t recognise it as a brain haemorrhage.
“So it took a long time before she was admitted to the wonderful Queen Square (the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery), which is part of University College London Hospitals and literally her life was saved because of an intervention to stop the bleeding.
“But it was three weeks in hospital before we knew whether she was going to have another stroke, and whether she would have different health problems as a result of the brain haemorrhage.”
She added: “Rehabilitation is undervalued and under-prioritised and that’s clearly got to change as a key component of universal health coverage.
“It was such a shock when it happened to us, when Emilia had her brain injury.
“We’ve had thousands of people write to us, and so it’s not just our own lived experience, there’s just not enough provision, not enough services available.
Join Emilia Clarke and her charity SameYou, to raise funds and help increase neurorehabilitation access after brain injury and stroke.