In the new ITV documentary ‘Finding Derek’, viewers will witness the highs and lows of Derek Draper’s coronavirus battle, including telling his wife Kate Garraway, “I love you forever and a day”.
The 53-year-old contracted the virus in March 2020 and is now suffering from the effects it had on his body, including kidney failure, damage to his liver and pancreas and heart failure.
As lockdown restrictions have prevented the family from visiting in person Kate, 53, got a nurse to set up an iPad so that she could continue her FaceTime conversations with her husband.
At his lowest point when he struggled to keep going she continued to talk to him through the night on her taxi to work.
(Image: ITV)
She then asked the nurses to put Good Morning Britain on so he could see her face when she could not speak.
Kate said that speaking words to his wife took all his energy.
The Mirror reports she said: “I said to him, ‘Just stay with me, I’m going to keep talking to you’. And he was obviously exhausted. Because that’s the other thing, is that the tiniest thing completely exhausts him.
(Image: ITV)
“Being able to get those words out, for him physically it’s as tough as running three marathons, that’s the way the doctors described it.
“It takes huge amounts of energy and spirit for him to do that.
“It’s so huge for his body to be able to get that out. It’s a huge power of spirit actually to be able to speak out in that way.”
“And then he’s sort of done and I was like ‘Close your eyes, I’m still here, I’m not going to go anywhere, I’m going to stay on the line’.
(Image: ITV)
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“So I kept the iPad going all the way into Good Morning Britain. And I said, ‘Right, I’m going to go on air now, and I’m going to ask the nurses to put Good Morning Britain on, so you can still see me and then I’ll call you straight afterwards’. It was a very strange, very strange morning.”
The couple tied the knot in 2005, and share two children together, Darcey, 15, and Billy, 11.
Last year, saw the couple reunited live on TV when Kate left the I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here jungle.
Kate Garraway: Finding Derek is on ITV, tomorrow (Tuesday) at 9pm.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
