Emilia Clarke was awarded an MBE alongside her mother Jenny for their work establishing a brain injury charity.
The Game Of Thrones star, 37, smiled from ear to ear as she accepted her honors at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.
emily and her mother co-founded SameYou, a brain injury recovery charity they established after the actress survived two brain bleeds.
The first, a brain hemorrhage, occurred while exercising at a north London gym in 2011.
She founded the charity after being shocked to discover the lack of staff in rehabilitation services.
Emilia Clarke was awarded an MBE alongside her mother Jenny for their work establishing a brain injury charity.
The Game of Thrones star, 37, smiled from ear to ear as she accepted her honors at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.
Emilia first suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2011, just after the first series of Game of Thrones finished filming, and she lost the ability to speak and almost fell into a coma.
Her second bleed in 2013 required surgery after scans showed it had doubled in size, and Emilia has previously told how she was in the “very small minority” of people who survived and had “no repercussions”.
He suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage after an aneurysm (a weak area in a blood vessel) on the surface of his brain burst.
They are most common in people aged between 45 and 70 and can leave patients with extreme tiredness, trouble sleeping, headaches, vision disturbances and loss of movement, but Emilia has previously said she has not been affected.
The experience prompted Emilia and her mother Jennifer to set up the charity SameYou to raise funds to help increase access to neurorehabilitation after brain injury and stroke.
Emilia has talked about undergoing surgery to restore blood flow, as well as medications to relieve pain.
The life-saving treatment left her with titanium in place of sections of her skull and scars.
The star previously admitted she was “more afraid of being fired than dying.”
Emily and her mother co-founded SameYou, a brain injury recovery charity they set up after the actress survived two brain bleeds (pictured with Prince William).
The first, a brain hemorrhage, occurred while exercising at a north London gym in 2011.
She founded the charity after being shocked to discover the lack of staff in rehabilitation services.
Her second bleed in 2013 required surgery after scans showed it had doubled in size, and Emilia has said she is one of the “minority” who have survived and had “no repercussions.”
Emilia previously admitted that she was “more afraid of being fired than of dying” (pictured in Game of Thrones in 2011)
She told Harper’s Bazaar: “I wasn’t afraid to die.” I was afraid they would fire me! I decided: ”This is not something that is going to define me.” I never gave in to any feeling of ‘Why me? This sucks’. I thought: I have to do it again.
‘If I’m brutally honest, this whole thing made me feel very embarrassed. As if it were broken. As if the producers should think I’m some unreliable person they’ve hired.
‘If I hadn’t had a brain bleed, I might have become an old fool, thinking I was the bee’s knee, living in Hollywood. I am much more aware of what is happening, at the moment it happens.
‘I don’t worry about failure: I thrive on failure! If something goes wrong, I always think you can fix it. It hurts, it’s scary, but you can do anything.’
In July 2022, Emilia explained that she should not be able to speak after two aneurysms left sections of her brain “no longer usable.”
He told Sophie Raworth on BBC1’s Sunday Morning programme: “You gain a lot of perspective.” The amount of my brain that is no longer usable… There’s quite a bit missing, which always makes me laugh.’
Emilia said it was “magical and enriching” to see her mother, who also underwent surgery to remove a brain aneurysm, recognized for her charitable work alongside her.
She said: “It’s an incredible honor, an incredible privilege, and the most important thing for us is that it is for everyone who has a brain injury.”
“We’re very fortunate to have had this near-death experience and to have gone through all that darkness and then come out of it.”
Others to be recognized at the investiture ceremony include Labor MP Dame Siobhain McDonagh, for her political and public service; director Betsy Gregory, for services to dance; and Lydia Otter, for services to people with autism and their families in Oxfordshire.
