Black Mirror star Rory Kinnear, who is also well known for his roles in Years and Years and Inside No. 9, has opened up about losing his sister to coronavirus. In a heartbreaking piece for The Guardian, Rory detailed how his sister Karina died from the virus aged 48 after suffering from lifelong health problems after suffering a "lack of oxygen at birth" that caused "severe brain damage".
Rory's sister passed away from COVID-19
In the devastating essay, he wrote: "Karina’s death is what we have feared ever since the disease took hold so rapaciously in Italy in February. Her lung capacity was so diminished that we knew, given the reports of its effects, that it was likely to prove incredibly dangerous for her. Her conditions weren’t just 'underlying', they were life-defining, for her and for us, even if she remained unaware of their severity."
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Speaking about saying goodbye to her on FaceTime, he continued: "A nurse, Patricia, held up Karina’s iPad while my mum, via FaceTime on her mobile, narrated a favourite story of hers for the last time and thanked her for the happiness she had brought us all. Mum then held up her home phone to her mobile, where my other sister, Kirsty, at hers, was able to say how much she loved her and would miss her. And then Kirsty held up her husband’s phone to hers where I, on loudspeaker, from my house, played Karina one of her favourite songs and told her how proud I was to have been her brother and what gratitude I felt for what she had taught me about life."
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He added: "If there is anything that I hope might come from Karina’s death, from the tens of thousands of other deaths caused by this disease and its insidious spread, it is that as a country, from government both national and local, we might make our focus the easing of those lives in the future." Speaking about the beautiful statement, screenwriter Sally Phillips tweeted: "This has really made me cry. #RoryKinnear I am so sorry." Author Jenny Colgan added: "I expect this will travel far and wide today and it should, it's beautiful: Rory Kinnear saying goodbye to his sister."
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