“The response from my story has been overwhelming.”
Emilia Clarke has shared a message of thanks to her fans following her emotive article about suffering two strokes while filming Game Of Thrones.
The actor experienced the first of two life-threatening subarachnoid hemorrhages (SAH) after she finished filming the show’s first series.
She was training in the gym when she felt as if “an elastic band were squeezing my brain.” One third of people die from the specific type of stroke she was experiencing.
Clarke has since thanked fans and friends for their words of support. Speaking in a video on her Instagram, she urged others to share their similar recovery stories with her charity, SameYou.
The group provides support to people who have experienced brain injuries and strokes.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvUR6jOlpTG/?utm_source=ig_embed
“Hi everyone, I had to put a video up to say thank you,” she said. “The response from my story has been overwhelming and deeply and profoundly moving, so thank you so much.”
In the caption of her video, she went on:
“A million million thank you’s to everyone who has read shared and sent love for my story, it’s a beautiful thing to behold and I can’t quite believe how many of you this has affected!
“SameYou is ready to hear your stories, how you recovered and what could have made that recovery experience better. By hearing your stories we can build a case for an improved aftercare experience for all in the future… Who wouldn’t want that!”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Btjohbhl0Z_/
In her New Yorker piece about her strokes, Clarke said that she had begged doctors to “let me die.”
“I’d never experienced fear like that — a sense of doom closing in,” she wrote. “I could see my life ahead, and it wasn’t worth living. I am an actor; I need to remember my lines. Now I couldn’t recall my name.”
“In my worst moments, I wanted to pull the plug. I asked the medical staff to let me die. My job—my entire dream of what my life would be—centered on language, on communication. Without that, I was lost.”
You can read her piece in full here.
