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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Lily Waddell

Kate Garraway says her family is paid with love caring for Derek Draper

Kate Garraway said her family is paid with love while looking after Derek Draper.

Her husband has required around the clock care since he was hospitalised with coronavirus in March 2020.

During The One Show, the Good Morning Britain star said it was “wonderful” to be able to care for her husband but she admitted it was also “tough”.

She said: “People have been so kind, generally it’s one of the lovely things about the horror story we have lived through, with the pandemic and what’s going on now.

“The documentary really focused on the carers, and the unpaid ones, (unpaid) other than with the love of their loved ones. The parents, kids, partners, there’s millions of them.

“It’s such a wonderful thing to be able to do but it’s a tough thing and it’s tough for the carer.”

As well as the carers, she has help from her children Bill and Darcey.

The breakfast TV presenter said she has the “possibility of hope” now her husband has had specialist treatment in Mexico and he is due to return in March.

She added: “We sort of worked hard and funnily enough, I sort of thought that at the end of the journey, if nothing else comes from this, the fact that he’s done this.

“I can already see has said something to himself about the possibility of hope.”

Caring For Derek gave a personal insight and the latest on her husband’s condition, following on from the award-winning documentary Finding Derek.

The mum-of-two admitted it hasn’t been easy but the defiant star refused to give up on her husband.

She said: “There’s a point where money runs out and I was thinking, ‘this isn’t sustainable, there isn’t the structure there to help long-term, what are we actually going to do?’

“I can’t give up, I can’t give up on him. And I’ve been doing a lot of research on the following documentary of wonderful people who’ve contacted me and this particular doctor had dealt with people not as severe as Derek, but in the area.

“He offered us the chance to be a kind of test case. But Derek can sustain sitting in a wheelchair for maybe 20 minutes before he flags, so the thought of going 5,000 miles seemed properly bonkers.”

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