Rita Ora has praised her “truly heroic” mother Vera after she returned to the front line as an NHS doctor amid the coronavirus crisis.
The singer, who has signed up to be a volunteer for the health service, said she was inspired by her mother’s bravery.
Appearing on ITV’s This Morning, she was asked if she was feeling nervous about her mother returning to work in hospital.
Ora said: “Selfishly, yes, of course, but again I think my mum thrives off doing her duty.
“I don’t want to speak for her, but I think what made me want to volunteer, even if it’s something like delivering food to someone’s home or picking up medicine, whatever it is, I just found, seeing it firsthand, I felt ‘Oh gosh. This is so real that I felt like, what could I possibly do?”
She added: “Obviously I don’t have a medical degree but I just think it’s really, truly heroic, not just from my mum’s perspective but just seeing all the doctors in general, really frontline and really putting themselves forward.
“It just goes to show we as a humanity can still come together and be unified. whether it’s me putting out music or whatever it is from my perspective, it’s truly, truly, truly an amazing time for us to come out the other end and be like ‘Wow, we’re really coming together’, so that really inspired me.”
Ora’s mother, who is working with mental health patients with Covid-19, said it has been hard to remain separate from the singer and her sister, but said it is for their own safety.
She told the show: “It’s really difficult, obviously. There is a reason for that, it’s just because I’m working full-time and I’m in and out of the hospital environment so the safest for everybody was for me to stay at home, work and just make sure that at least I don’t put at risk Rita and her sister.”