Star’s final goodbye as father, 67, dies in hospital

WEARING a surgical mask and gloves, former Dr Who star Sophia Myles caresses her father’s head as he lays in hospital with deadly coronavirus.

The actress, 40, shared the heart-breaking picture of herself at her father’s Peter’s bedside after he was struck down. Hours after posting the image, she announced that he had died.

Miss Myles, who is also known for her roles in the Transformers films, said her 67-year-old father caught the illness while battling underlying health conditions. In a post on social media yesterday, she said: ‘My dear dad died only a few hours ago. It was the coronavirus that finally took him.’

Miss Myles revealed her father’s illness on March 13, explaining he had been taken to intensive care after experiencing difficulties swallowing.

She later said he had contracted coronavirus and revealed he had a number of other underlying health issues, including progressive supranuclear palsy – a degenerative disease.

Miss Myles charted her father’s decline in video updates online – and last week said she had been told he was ‘imminently away from death’.

In a video last Sunday, the London-born actress said: ‘The patients are just hallucinating, they’re freaking out, the staff are freaking out. None of them know what is going on, it is just devastating.’

Miss Myles, who was spotted by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes in a school play, warned the public: ‘Don’t underestimate the power of this virus, especially on the elderly. I think it is really targeting the elderly the worst.’

It came as rugby World Cup winner Will Greenwood paid tribute to his ‘wonderful’ aunt yesterday as he revealed she had died after contracting the virus. The 47-year-old retired England star said Jean Bradford-Nutter, 84, died before she had the chance to meet her newborn great-granddaughter.

Mr Greenwood said that his aunt, after suffering with the illness for a week, used her dying words to urge her family not to shed tears for her.

Mrs Bradford-Nutter contracted the virus after recovering from an infection that had resulted in a leg amputation. Posting a photograph of his aunt on social media, Mr Greenwood said: ‘It has knocked all of us in the family. Aunty Jean never did anything but bring sunshine into my life.’