KATE Garraway says her good friend Ben Shephard was “concerned about her sanity” when she revealed plans to fly her husband Derek Draper to Mexico for a long COVID clinical trial.
The Good Morning Britain presenter admitted it sounds “bonkers” because Derek still requires 24/7 care at home after his body was ravaged by coronavirus in 2020.
Kate Garraway admitted that Derek worried about her decision to fly Derek to Mexico[/caption]
Derek will be flying back to Mexico for more treatment[/caption]
She admitted he currently “flags” after 20 minutes in a wheelchair – leaving her co-host was worried about her and her decision making.
She said: “That came at a really low point when I thought, ‘Oh god, this is not sustainable’. The system … I mean, I don’t believe that we can have 24-hour care forever, you know.
“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.
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“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.”
However, Kate believes the trip has given Derek – who is due to return to Mexico next month – some “possibility of hope”.
Speaking on This Morning, 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 done this, I can already see has said something to himself about the possibility of hope.”
Kate spoke about Derek’s trip to Mexico this week on ITV documentary Caring For Derek, a follow-up to the couple’s National Television Award-winning film Finding Derek.
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