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Emilia Clarke has shared more details about two life-threatening brain aneurysms she endured - just as the first season of Game of Thrones was becoming a worldwide phenomenon.
Speaking to BBC's Sunday Morning Program, the actress and founder of SameYou.org which supports people recovering from brain injuries, discussed how she's doing, almost a decade on - and she's thriving.
"It's remarkable that I'm able to speak, sometimes articulately, and live my life completely normally without absolutely no repercussions," she tells the program.
"I am in that really, really, really small minority of people that can survive that."
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During the interview, Emilia explains how starring as Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones while she was recovering from her aneurysms in 2011 and 2013 gave her "purpose" during a difficult time.
She first opened up about her brain injuries in 2019 in an essay for The New Yorker, recalling the moment she became violently ill after exercising:
"I immediately felt as though an elastic band was squeezing my brain. I tried to ignore the pain and push through it, but I just couldn't."
She was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, where she was diagnosed with a subarachnoid haemorrhage - a type of stroke which can kill one in three patients.
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Emilia's health scare hasn't stopped her from pursuing her career - she's now starring in a stage production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull and the upcoming Marvel series Secret Invasion.
You can watch her full interview here.
(Feature Image Credit: Featureflash Photo Agency/Shutterstock)
