Emilia Clarke and her mother receive Most Excellent Order of the British Empire honors

Four years ago, around the time the final season of Game of Thrones was airing, star Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) revealed that she had suffered a pair of brain hemorrhages while she was working on the show, one in 2011 and another in 2013. Both hemorrhages required hospital stays and extensive therapy. Clarke recovered, but it changed her outlook. "I'm inclined to say that anxiety is more prevalent within me since the brain hemorrhage, but what else happened when I got a brain hemorrhage was I started Game of Thrones, so anxiety was going to happen any which way," she told the BBC. "I kept my story a secret. I didn't want to tell anyone. I didn't want it to be a celebrity sob story."

Eventually, Clarke decided that she had a responsiblity to speak out on the subject. "[I]n the grand scheme of things, what I went through and the fact that I'm here talking to you is nothing short of a miracle," she said. "That can happen, but it's not the norm for people with brain injury, so I feel it's my duty to be able to use my vaguely working brain to talk about it."

That led to the creation of SameYou, a charity dedicated helping brain injury survivors and developing better treatments. "The single most important thing that we've done is at least build the first brick of a foundation of a platform to talk about this, because it's a shameful thing - people feel ashamed when they've got it," Clarke shared. "The second thing we're most proud of is NROL, which is our online rehabilitation that we began in Covid, and now we're trying to get the funds to roll out for it to be more accessible, because the feedback and the results have been phenomenal."

Emilia's mother Jenny, who previously had brain surgery to remove an aneurysm, serves as chief executive for SameYou. "We realised that very few people had access to long enough rehabilitation or early enough rehabilitation," Jenny said. "You are expected to get better after a certain period, and that, sadly, is not the reality for the majority of people. Even if you have a very mild brain injury, it's a really major trauma."

Emilia and Jenny have been doing great work with SameYou for years. And now, the pair of them have been rewarded with the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE), an order of chivalry established by King George V in 1917 to recognize contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organizations, and public service.

"I can say for both of us that the MBE is for the cause and the charity, and for that it's wicked. For that it's amazing," Emilia said. "And who doesn't want to go to the palace? I've asked if I can take my dog, but apparently you can't."

Recipients of MBEs are invited to a ceremony at either Buckingham Palace or one of the Royal households where they will receive their medal either from King Charles or another representative from the royal family. I think we can all agree that King Charles should show up for Queen Daenerys.

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