Prince William has just awarded actress Emilia Clarke and her mom Jennifer Clarke with MBEs, AKA super coveted medals that celebrate great achievement.
However fabulous Emilia was on Game of Thrones and Me Before You, this honor actually celebrated hers and Jennifer's charity contributions via their organization SameYou, which works to support people with brain injuries.
The Prince and Princess of Wales shared a reel of the award ceremony on Instagram with the caption, "From Westeros to Windsor, a real pleasure presenting @emilia_clarke and her mum Jennifer with their honours today for their charity work with @sameyouorg supporting brain injury recovery care
"Congratulations to all of today’s recipients!"
In the video, Emilia said, "To have an award like this, it really kind of—cherry on the cake. You know, I'm going to go and get my photo taken because of this award, and people are gonna say, 'Why has this person who we recognize got this award?' and we're gonna say, 'It's for brain injury recovery.'"
A few weeks ago, Emilia and Jennifer talked about how surprised they were to hear that they would be receiving MBEs, with Emilia saying, "The thing that Mum kept saying is she was like, 'I think I've been pranked. I think I've been hacked. I think someone's telling a fib, it can't be true.'"
Emilia started SameYou after she suffered two serious brain hemorrhages while she was filming Game of Thrones.
Telling her story on the organization's website, she wrote, "In early 2011 I was struck by the first of two brain hemorrhages. I am hardly unique or alone in that. 1 in 3 people will suffer a brain injury in their lifetime. That number is huge. It’s almost double the number of people who will develop dementia. It’s shocking to me—and you too, probably—that such a common health problem is so little known and barely spoken about. I made a full recovery but many more people don't, and I want to break the silence on this common, silent and devastating condition."
Congratulations to Emilia and Jennifer on this impactful work, and on being recognized for it, too.
