‘It’s her last hope’: Kate Garraway is ‘planning a trip across the world’ to find pioneering treatment in final bid to save husband Derek Draper’s life
Kate Garraway is reportedly planning a trip across the world to find pioneering treatment in a final bid to save her husband Derek Draper’s life.
The Good Morning Britain presenter, 55, has cared for her husband, also 55, since he contracted an unusually serious case of long Covid in 2020.
Derek fought for his life after contracting the virus in March 2020. He was rushed to hospital in an ambulance where he was placed on a ventilator and in an induced coma.
Kate is now planning a trip across the world for pioneering treatment in a ‘final hope’ to save her husband of 13 years.
A source told Bella Magazine: ‘This really is Kate’s desperate bid to try and save Derek’s life and she is willing to try anything.
Last hope: Good Morning Britain presenter Kate Garraway is planning a trip around the world to save her husband Derek Draper
Sad: Derek, 55, is the UK’s longest-suffering long Covid patient and was in hospital for a year
‘She’s been looking into a number of experimental medical options around the world and particularly in Mexico in an effort to save him from the devastating effects of Covid-19.
‘Kate only wants the best for Derek. She wants to try it because she feels as though it’s her last hope.’
Derek, a former political advisor, has previously travelled to Mexico in 2021 and 2022 for clinical trials.
As a result of lockdown rules during the pandemic, Kate and the couple’s two children Darcey, 16, and Billy, 13, were unable to visit him as he received treatment.
13 months later, Derek was finally allowed to go home.
However, following the long period of hospitalisation, his body was ravaged with various crippling conditions and he now remains confined to a bed and wheelchair.
While Derek’s long-term chance of recovery is still not known, the ‘utter devastation’ to his body is undeniable.
Although Kate insisted that they’d had ‘wonderful treatment’ from the NHS, which were essential in keeping her husband alive, the foreign trips offer ‘potentially life saving treatment’.
Battle: The Good Morning Britain star has cared for Derek, both 55, ever since he became unwell with Long Covid in 2020 after becoming gravely ill with the virus at the onset of the pandemic
Awful: Derek became the longest-suffering coronavirus patient in the UK after spending 13 months in hospital, apart from Kate and their two children – Darcey, 16 and Billy, 13 (pictured together)
As well as the trip, the Smooth Radio presenter has had to spend ‘tens of thousands of pounds’ adapting the family home in London for Derek, which included the installation of ramps, a downstairs wet room and a makeshift downstairs bedroom.
Due to the severity of his illness and length of time spent in hospital he remains unable to walk and has developed debilitating symptoms.
In summer last year, Derek developed sepsis and was again rushed to hospital, where the severe condition nearly killed him.
Speaking about his current condition and caring for him, she told The Sun: ‘There are some days where he literally cannot do anything and it’s like the computer is switched off.
‘He cannot move, and he’s in so much pain as we are manipulating him, trying to get him more mobile so that he doesn’t regress.’
The presenter noted that despite Derek’s insistence that they carry on, she says it’s ‘unbearable’ to see him in pain, admitting it makes her ’emotional’ just speaking about it.
However, she added: ‘It also makes me fall in love with him all over again because of that spirit, that determination to keep going. Derek is trapped, but he fights on. We cling on to the good days.’
Reflecting on the ups and downs of caring for her husband, Kate remarked that every day is a ‘roller coaster’ as Derek’s spirit ‘fluctuates’.
The journalist added that it is ‘heart-breaking’ to watch her husband of 18 years unable to move with tears streaming down his face, noting that as ‘hard’ as it is for them, she ‘cannot imagine’ how tough it is for Derek.
MailOnline has contacted representatives of Kate Garraway for comment.
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