Kate Garraway has revealed that frightened husband Derek Draper frantically begged for her to be “near” before he’d received his Covid-19 diagnosis.
The Good Morning Britain journalist, 53, revealed every heartbreaking detail about the frightful ordeal in her new moving memoir The Power Of Hope.
Casting her mind back to the days and hours before Derek was whisked off in an ambulance, following Dr Hilary Jones’ swift instruction to get him to hospital immediately, Kate recalled her husband’s “desperate” plea for her just to be near.
The TV presenter had just wrapped up filming for the day when her heart began to race as she glanced at her phone.
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He desperately penned: “Kate are you near? Please be near? I feel terrible.”
The day prior, Derek had complained that he wasn’t feeling himself and the I’m A Celebrity star agreed that he was looking “unwell”, although he wasn’t showing the usual symptoms.
Kate’s husband hadn’t developed a soaring high temperature and he didn’t have a cough either.
This led to them both overlooking that he could have had the deadly coronavirus at first.
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With Derek’s condition worsening each day and more press coverage about the start of a global pandemic, panic had started to set in.
After receiving the initial text Kate started to notice her husband’s erratic behaviour wasn’t normal and was out of character.
Pondering over her husband’s fear, she wrote in her book: “He rarely gets ill, and even when he does, yes, of course he demands lots of attention, but always with his tongue in his cheek.
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“There was something unsettling about this curt text. Then minutes later another: Are you near? Please be near?
“This was not like him at all. He sounded desperate.
“I got home as quickly as I could and was relieved when I walked in to see him out of bed and watching Billy playing with his lego.”
At this point, the TV journalist had no idea of the pain and heartache that would be in store for her and her two children Billy, 11, and Darcey, 15.
Their life was completely turned upside down after Derek had been placed into an induced coma in a bid to ease his suffering after he was unable to cope with the “drowning feeling”.
After a year of much worry and fear, Derek was finally freed from hospital to return home to his loved ones where he continues on his journey of recovery.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
