KATE Garraway has said her seriously-ill husband Derek Draper’s brain is “no longer his friend”.
The former Labour party guru, 53, was taken to hospital a year ago battling coronavirus, which has left his body ravaged.
Speaking on The One Show, Kate explained: “He is somebody who both in this time before I knew him, when he was in politics, and also since in all the work he has done in mental health, because that’s his thing now.
“His brain has always been his best friend and he’s lived on his wits and now suddenly his brain – as we all know controls his body – is no longer his friend and he’s fighting to get out.”
The Good Morning Britain star has documented Derek’s year with Covid in moving documentary Finding Derek, which will air on ITV on Tuesday.
Speaking to Susanna Reid on GMB last week, Kate said her husband was unfortunate to be struck by the illness when so little was known about it.
She said: “It’s very emotional. The anniversary of lockdown. Derek was surfing the crest of a very grim wave, he was always just in front of…
“There has been a lot of progress.”
The broadcaster, 53, began working on the documentary in August and had hoped she’d be reunited with her husband at home before it aired, but that has not been the case.
While the documentary shows footage of Derek in hospital, Kate wants the piece to educate rather than terrify.
“We don’t want to scare people with what he’s been through,” she said.
“When we talk about long Covid: breathing problems, fatigue, anxiety… it’s much more widespread than that.”
Kate recently shared the first photo of Derek fighting for his life in hospital.
In the emotional trailer for Finding Derek, Kate says: “Derek is the sickest person the team of doctors have treated this year,” Kate says.
“Is he going to be able to come back or will he be alive but no longer the person he was?”
The screen goes black as a message reads: “One year later, Derek is still in hospital.”
Earlier this month, Kate told of her devastation at being told her husband Derek may be “locked in” forever.
After contracting the virus more than a year ago, Derek faced an uphill battle to survive.
Coronavirus ravaged his body, his kidneys failed, he has liver and pancreas damage and his heart has stopped more than once.
Countless infections have left holes in his lungs and the battle has seen him lose eight stone.
However, Kate said that doctors still can’t tell her whether Derek will recover – and they have warned her he may remain “locked in” for good.
“The very worst moment was when they said he could be locked in for ever,” she told The Celeb Reportday Times.
“And I just thought, this is a horror story. I don’t know if he’ll ever have any kind of life again. We just don’t know.”
And Kate told how in the early months a hospital mistake saw her told her “may have died” – and she faced an agonising 24-hour wait to discover the truth.
Kate said: “I was just sitting on the phone, waiting to know if he’d died or not.”
She was told: “He may have died. Somebody will call you back.”
Kate was forced to wait more than a day for news about her husband’s condition and had no idea if he was even alive.
She added: “Then it turned out that somebody had died who had a similar name to his.”
Kate also told how she had been repeatedly told to prepare herself for Derek’s death during the last year.
But he clung on to life and eventually doctors removed the drugs keeping him in an induced coma – though unfortunately he failed to wake up.
I’m A Celebrity star Kate will star in a one-off documentary about Derek’s health battle – and the impact it has had on their lives.
Kate‘s unflinching account of her family’s trauma over the last 12 months will be laid bare in front of the cameras.
She also met survivors of the disease and discuss the long-term effects of the virus.
Whilst Derek has beaten Covid, he’s been unable to gain consciousness from his induced coma and is still in intensive care a year after catching the virus.
He remains in a critical condition and is now the UK’s longest surviving Covid-19 inpatient.
