I don’t know what the future holds for my Derek but I have to keep fighting says brave Kate Garraway

KATE Garraway has not given up on her seriously ill husband, Derek Draper, and will continue to fight for his recovery.

The GMB star's  husband Derek contracted coronavirus in March 2020 which left him critically ill.

He spent over a year in hospital, before finally returning home to be cared for by his Kate and their children.

Since contracting Covid, Derek has suffered from several complications including brain inflammation and damage to the lungs, kidneys, heart and liver.

"There isn't a clear [cause], other than Derek caught Covid. There are three diagnoses of how it impacted him, neither of which anyone is confident in," she told Woman's Now.

"And because of the impact, noone really knows what the future holds, so I have to keep on fighting for Derek. I want to and I have to."

Derek receives round-the-clock care after returning to his family home and, although he is able to communicate, Kate has realised that he is unable to communicate as he did before contracting coronavirus.

"The doctors believe that there will be a trajectory but that it will be very slow," she wrote in her memoir, The Power Of Hope.

"Derek will still sleep for 20 hours a day, for example."

Applauding her two children's "bravery", Kate also confessed she had not cried over the ordeal, admitting she is not ready to talk to a therapist for fear of "opening the floodgates."

In September, Kate choked back the tears as she was honoured for her documentary on husband Derek’s gruelling battle with Covid.

She got a standing ovation at the National Television Awards for Finding Derek.

Wiping away tears, she said: “Thank you so much for voting. I wonder if the reason you did because our story is your story.

“We’ve all been touched by the pandemic. Whether it’s livelihood, mental health, all the other extraordinary documentaries which have been highlighted and nominated tonight, they have also been affected by the pandemic.”

Back in March 2021 Kate's documentary Finding Derek aired on ITV.

In the film Kate was seen breaking down in tears as Derek spoke for the first time after coming out of a coma.

In heartbreaking scenes, the Good Morning Britain presenter revealed how emotional it was to see such progress after 214 days in hospital.

Kate shared a video of herself filming her husband during a rehab session and captured the extraordinary moment.

When the doctor asked if the movement was ok, he said: “Pain”.

Speaking about the moment afterwards, Kate said: “So that is the first time I saw him mouth a word and he mouths pain, I saw it really clearly and I said ‘pain, pain’."

Unable to fight back tears, the mum-of-two said: “It makes me cry because that is a massive breakthrough- the fact his brain can communicate to his mouth to shape the word pain."