Film star and her mum highlight importance of new centre
THE mother of a world-famous TV star has highlighted the importance of rehabilitation, particularly the creation of the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), delivered by Nottingham University Hospitals.
Emilia Clarke, best known as Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones, suffered two life-threatening brain haemorrhages while working on the television series.
The Mother of Dragons, alongside her own mother, Jenny Clarke, is stressing the importance of rehabilitation after setting up a charity to help young survivors get the post-injury support they need. The pair co-founded brain injury charity, SameYou, which - like the NRC - aims to improve lives and outcomes for people who have suffered serious illness or injury.
Clinical rehabilitation offers a route back to fitness for those affected by brain injury, and Jenny has penned an article for the NRC’s ‘Rehabilitation Matters’ series. Newly-released drone footage has shown the progress being made on the construction of a pioneering £105m centre in Nottinghamshire.
The purpose-built rehabilitation centre, which will be run by Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH), will become the first of its kind in the UK when it opens in Stanfordon-Soar, Rushcliffe, near Loughborough. Jenny Clarke MBE says: “We share common ground with the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC).
“I think it’s going to do outstanding work. It has the opportunity to be a flagship and a tangible major piece in the change we all want to see across the whole of rehabilitation.
“It’s a glimpse of the future and another step on the road for making the best rehabilitation available to all.”
Rehabilitation Matters is a series of stories and perspectives from people who care about effective clinical rehabilitation and the benefits it provides. It started in the Spring of 2021 with an article by NRC Programme Director Miriam Duffy and the series includes viewpoints from patients, clinicians, surgeons, academic partners and others.
The NRC is currently under construction on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate near Loughborough and is anticipated to open next year (2025). It will be a 70-bed specialist facility which combines patient care delivered by staff from Nottingham University Hospitals with research, innovation and training.
Miriam Duffy, NRC Programme Director at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We’re hugely grateful to Jenny for sharing their story so openly and so powerfully.
“Rehabilitation can make a fundamental difference in people’s lives when it comes at the right time and is delivered in the right way. Emilia is living proof of that and the way that SameYou is now working to break the stigma around brain injury and recovery is important and necessary.”