Rory Kinnear has revealed that his sister has died from coronavirus, and urged the UK government to greater support those with disabilities as well as society’s most vulnerable.
Writing in The Guardian, the actor and playwright explained that he and his family had said their goodbyes to Karina, 48, over FaceTime, after she was hospitalised after testing positive for the illness.
Kinner wrote that Karina had experienced severe brain damage at birth, and later paralysis from the waist down following spinal surgery as a teenager. She had previously suffered kidney damage and was hospitalised with chest infections throughout her life.
“Her lung capacity was so diminished that we knew, given the reports of [Covid-19’s] effects, that it was likely to prove incredibly dangerous for her,” Kinnear wrote. “Her conditions weren’t just ‘underlying’, they were life-defining, for her and for us, even if she remained unaware of their severity.”
He continued: “It was coronavirus that killed her. It wasn’t her ‘underlying conditions’. Prior to her diagnosis, she hadn’t been in hospital for 18 months.
“It was a virulent, aggressive and still only partially understood virus that was responsible, a virus that is causing thousands of people, despite the unstinting bravery of the medical staff of this country, to say a distanced goodbye to relatives who would still be alive had they not contracted it.”
Kinnear added that he hoped Covid-19 would spark greater recognition for those “most in need of our care and compassion”, as it is making their lives “harder” and “even more fearful”.
He also called upon governments to invest “financially and emotionally” in the lives of those who need the most support.
