“There's an incredible loneliness and isolation if you can't communicate.”
Clemency Burton-Hill tells us why she made the BBC Arts documentary My Brain: After the Rupture, which follows her incredible recovery journey from a catastrophic brain haemorrhage. Against the odds, she emerged from a 17-day coma but, unable to speak or walk, or to play her beloved music, she was faced with having to rebuild her life.
📺 My Brain: After the Rupture is available now on #iplayer.
“The violin has been like my ally... a friend.”
On a bright January morning in 2020, 38-year-old Clemency Burton-Hill - Clemmie - suffered a catastrophic brain haemorrhage. Against the odds, she emerged from a 17-day coma, but she was unable to speak or walk and was faced with having to rebuild her life.
📺 Watch My Brain: After the Rupture on BBC Two and #iPlayer from 9pm Friday.
#Onwards, @arsenal , #AlwaysForward #leo #leo #leo etc, but please can you make it a *bit* less stressful in our remaining games, yeah? Cheers, boys ❤️
PS: May 10th has been a dread-full date for me since 1995 (Nayim from the half-way line, IYKYK, I cried at school the next day, ALL DAY, and for many days/months/years afterward; I know, I am LAME) so I was a particularly wretched ball of anxiety going into this game because of that vexed date, ON TOP OF THE GENERAL SICKNESS-INDUCING ANXIETY OF THIS RIDIC SEASON. Hopefully the May 10th hex has gone, which is something, at least.. 😪⚽️🥴
‘Smile, love. It might never happen!’
What can I say?
What would I give to have my old, pre-Stroke smile back; my old pre-Stroke right hand back; my old pre-Stroke life back; pre-Stroke mind back?
There is nothing that I could give 😔
‘The thing is, it might.’
Could I reply like that?! Imagine the discomfort! The sheer load of always trying to make sure others are not too uncomfortable in my presence!
The thing is, it might.
So please enjoy it, cherish it, love it, worship it. Never, ever take it for granted.
And if you lose it, as I have lost it, at least you know you chose to live it.
Onward. With a very heavy heart, but Onward.
#IChooseLife #AVMSurvivor #StrokeSurvivor #BrainInjurySurvivor #AlwaysForward
Found this taken on my schoolgirl camera, snapped from my old and much-missed seat at Highbury.
Different times; possibly better times; still, always, #Arsenal times.
Finding strength in you, @wrightyofficial@officialgunnersaurus@arsenal .
Victoria Concordia Crescit! ⚽️🦖🎶❤️
#COYG
Best birthday present ever.
Thanks @arsenal@championsleague@eze #declanrice, my favourite little pundits and trusty old #Gunnersaurus, my ride-or-die since ‘94 ❤️🤍🎉⚽️
I went to open Instagram today (not an everyday occurrence these days) as I have been feeling a bit wobbly (and possibly self-pitying). I just wanted to put something on here, anything, even if it was a bit lame, to simply mark the still-being-here on 20 January when, six years ago, on another freezing but radiant day, unbeknownst to me, it was almost that there were no more 20 Januarys left for me.
What a thing, what a thing, what a thing.
It has only been about 70 hours since I saw my father’s coffin disappear behind a crematorium’s tasteful but extremely impersonal faux-velvet curtain, and I’m bone shattered and sad and confused. On top of all the other things happening in the world, I have feeling like I just can’t handle it anymore. It has been a lot, over these past six years, for everyone, hasn’t it?
But although the world gets increasingly terrifying and perplexing and desperate, year on year, I suddenly remembered: it’s still so beautiful, and the sky has not yet caved in on us, and somehow it’s still here! We are all here. HERE. Think about that! HERE!
And as this - turns out, quite loony - caption unspooled, unbidden, I became… brimful. Not wobbly anymore. BRIMFUL.
And so I fling my eternal gratitude, to that bluest of blue skies, to the people and things whose presence in it saved my life, and keep on saving it. (Many of you know who you are; some don’t; all I am thankful for.)
For example today:
- I chatted to my boys at breakfast, after distributing little tokens that I had brought over from from London last night: Percy Pigs (new flavours and original), Match of the Day mags and trading cards and lots of British chocolate bars; their squeals of delight were music
- I drank a cup of excellent coffee in a shaft of sunlight and although it was -8 degrees outside I basked like a cat
- I managed a short walk outside
- I read Daniel Levitin’s new book ‘Music as Medicine’ during my afternoon rest and was fully astonished
- I watched my Arsenal boys fully smash Inter in the Champions League
- and I had dinner with some dear friends who both acknowledged the date but did not dwell on it
Brimful, I tell you. Brimful.
Onward.
I choose life 💙
And then he was gone 💔
Many beautiful things to take from dad’s funeral yesterday, not the least of which was that it was the first time, ever, that all six of his children (born between 1949 and 1981) were finally together, in the same place (crematorium; pub; field; beach; and pub again).
That’s some salve.
Onward ❤️
On December 2, more than 95 guests gathered at Mount Sinai West for a screening of My Brain: After the Rupture, a powerful documentary chronicling broadcaster, writer, and musician Clemency Burton-Hill’s remarkable recovery after a catastrophic brain hemorrhage.
The evening reunited Clemency with cerebrovascular neurosurgeon Christopher Kellner, MD, Director of the Cerebrovascular Center and the Intracerebral Hemorrhage Program at Mount Sinai, whose expert care helped save her life, along with several other members of her original care team.
The film traces Clemency’s journey from crisis to healing, highlighting her determination to reclaim her voice, career, and music.
Following the screening, a panel discussion featuring Clemency, Dr. Kellner, and film director Ursula Macfarlane, moderated by Peabody Award–winning broadcaster and producer Elliott Forrest, explored the roles of medical expertise, creative expression, and human connection in recovery. The audience actively engaged in the panel, asking questions that highlighted the impact of compassionate, coordinated care for Clemency and the many patients and families served by the Mount Sinai team.
Thank you to Clemency and her family, Ursula, Dr. Kellner, and Elliott for a remarkable evening that highlighted both the excellence of Mount Sinai’s cerebrovascular care and the strength of the patients we are privileged to serve.
Read more about this inspiring event and Clemency’s journey ➡️ /mountsinai/mountsinai/contents/41498095
