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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Will Twigger

Emilia Clarke offers dinner date to raise money for charity amid coronavirus outbreak

Game of Thrones alum Emilia Clarke has launched a touching initiative to relieve the NHS during the coronavirus pandemic - by having dinner with fans.

The Daenerys Targaryen actress, 33, is aiming to raise £250,000 for her brain health charity SameYou, which would allow them to better "provide stroke and brain injury patients with essential support" after they've been discharged from hospital.

Emilia explained that this would help free up NHS beds during the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

In an Instagram video shared with her 27.4 million followers, Emilia laid out her plan: "How would you feel about having dinner with me? Virtually.

"12 lucky people will join me, virtually, and we're going to put together a store cupboard dinner.

Fans have a chance to dine with Emilia (Emilia Clarke/Instagram)

"Together we'll cook it and we'll eat it together and we'll discuss lots of things, isolation, fear, and lots of funny videos and the fact that I can't really cook.

"So it's going to be fun! It'll be interesting."

Emilia added: "We have to create more beds for the NHS to take care of Covid-19 sufferers, and when you're doing that, your brain injury survivors are leaving hospital early, as we all have to do at this time.

She's aiming to relieve the NHS during the pandemic (Emilia Clarke/Instagram)
She ended on a positive note (Emilia Clarke/Instagram)

"They need somewhere to go. We have partnered with our partners in America, at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and our partners in England in UCL, we are creating a virtual rehabilitation clinic so that brain injury survivors have somewhere to go, somewhere to feel safe, somewhere to feel not so alone and isolated.

"We need to do all we can to release as many beds as possible to free up our hard-working NHS."

Emilia established the SameYou Foundation early last year - she had suffered two brain aneurysms, the first soon after filming Game of Thrones' first season.

Emilia has been candid about her struggles with brain health (AFP/Getty Images)
She played fan favourite Daenerys (PacificCoastNews/Avalon.red)

Emilia told in an article for The New Yorker about the first of her health scares, during a workout.

"My trainer had me get into the plank position," she revealed, "And I immediately felt as though an elastic band were squeezing my brain."

She continued: "Meanwhile, the pain - shooting, stabbing, constricting pain - was getting worse. At some level, I knew what was happening: my brain was damaged."

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