Kate Garraway’s moving tribute to carers who were ‘paid with love’ to help ailing relatives

Good Morning Britain and Life Stories presenter Kate Garraway spoke about the reaction to her new ITV documentary Caring for Derek, which chronicles her family adapting to her husband’s ongoing and serious health problems after contracting Covid-19 has infected

Video is loading

Video not available

The video will start playing automatically soon8thCancel

Play Now

Kate Garraway says it’s ‘tough’ to take care of Derek

Kate Garraway has paid tribute to the carers who look after her ailing relatives, speaking of the strain they are under, but admitting they are “paid with love”.

The TV presenter’s husband Derek Draper, 54, requires 24-hour care at home after contracting Covid in March 2020 and being placed in an induced coma by doctors.

Kate, 54, decided to continue Derek’s treatment at home after spending a year in hospital. He can still only sit in his wheelchair for about 20 minutes.

Appearing on The One Show yesterday, Kate opened up about her decision and the reaction to her ITV documentary, Caring for Derek, which aired last month.

On the show, Good Morning Britain (GMB) presenter Kate adjusted to the changes in her life with political lobbyist-turned-psychiatrist and their children Darcey, 15, and William, 12.

Kate said: “People have been so nice, in general it’s one of the beautiful things about the horror story that we’ve been through with the pandemic and what’s going on now.

“The documentary really focused on the caregivers and the unpaid, (unpaid) except with the love of their loved ones. Parents, children, partners, there are millions of them.

“It’s so wonderful to be able to do this, but it’s a difficult thing and it’s difficult for the caregiver.”

The mother-of-two also spoke about Derek’s trip to Mexico for a lengthy Covid clinical trial, which can be seen in the documentary.

She revealed the trip had left her friends, including GMB co-host Ben Shephard, worried about their “sanity”.

She said: “There comes a point where the money runs out and I thought, ‘this is not sustainable, there isn’t the structure to help over the long term, what are we actually going to do?’

“I can’t give up, I can’t give up on him.

“And I did a lot of research on the following documentary about wonderful people who contacted me and this particular doctor dealt with people who weren’t as strict as Derek but were in the area.

“[He] gave us the chance to be a kind of test case.

“But [Derek] can last maybe 20 minutes in a wheelchair before giving in, so the thought of driving 5,000 miles seemed downright crazy.

“I think Ben Shephard was a little worried about my mental health.”

However, Kate said this trip gave Derek an “opportunity of hope” and he will be returning to Mexico next month.

She continued, “We’ve kind of worked hard and weirdly I thought that at the end of the journey, if nothing else comes of it, the fact that it’s him [Derek’s] did it

“I can already see that he’s been saying something to himself about the possibility of hope.”

Caring for Derek follows the documentary Finding Derek, which details the plight of Kate’s family during his 13 months in hospital.

The Life Stories host won a National Television Award for the show last year.

The One Show airs every week at 7pm on BBC.