labour of love
It’s tough on me and the kids looking after Derek but we’re paid with love, says Kate Garraway
KATE Garraway has spoken of the strain families face caring for sick relatives, but admitted they are "paid with love".
Her husband Derek Draper can only sit in his wheelchair for 20 minutes and still requires 24/7 care at home after his body was ravaged by Covid in 2020.
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He spent a year in hospital fighting the virus before Kate, 54, decided to continue his treatment at home.
The Good Morning Britain star reflected on her decision today as she spoke about the incredible response to her recent ITV documentary Caring For Derek.
Kate said on The One Show tonight: "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."
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Kate spoke about Derek's trip to Mexico for a long Covid clinical trial on ITV documentary Caring For Derek, a follow-up to the couple's National Television Award-winning film Finding Derek.
She said that the trip has left her friends, including her GMB co-host Ben Shephard, concerned for her "sanity".
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.
"I think Ben Shephard was a little bit concerned about my sanity."
Despite her colleague Ben's concern, Kate believes the trip has given Derek, who is due to return to Mexico next month, some "possibility of hope".
She added: "But he [Ben] then got it.
"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 [Derek's] done this.
"I can already see has said something to himself about the possibility of hope."
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