Kate Garraway gives worrying update on Derek Draper's health

Kate Garraway has offered a worrying update on her husband Derek Draper's ongoing health problems as he battles to recover from devastating complications caused by Covid.

The Good Morning Britain star's husband was the worst affected surviving COVID patient in the UK, spending more than a year in hospital at the height of the pandemic and requiring round-the-clock care now that he is back at home.

Garraway, 56, has made two award-winning documentaries and published two books about the experiences that the couple and their two children Darcey and William have had in dealing with their situation.

But at Sunday's Pride of Britain Awards she shared that things were not good for Draper at the moment.

She told Metro: "He’s not doing great, to be honest. But the battle goes on."

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Garraway also confirmed that she had managed to get an in-person meeting with health secretary Steve Barclay after a recent on-air plea to speak to him about the plight of people trapped in the healthcare system long term when he appeared on GMB.

She had said to him: "I’d like to come and talk to you – not about Derek by the way, this is not me trying to get something for him.

"This is about representing millions of people across the country who, like me, in one hand feel like they’re holding the life of their loved one and in the other hand punching away at a system and it isn’t about money."

Despite Draper being back at home, Garraway has told of numerous dashes to hospital for various infections and complications, and the stress that it puts on the whole family.

Talking about her recently-published book The Strength of Love on Heart Breakfast in September, she said that the family had been living on adrenaline for a while.

"On one level it’s fantastic, it gets you through the crisis, and then as time goes on, it’s not great for your own health. Derek himself has been living on a version of adrenaline as well. And the kids have too in their own way," she said.

"So I think the last year and a half really, has been coming to terms with the fact that we’re not in a one week, two week, three month drama. We’re in something ongoing and I think weirdly, that’s how its felt for everybody beyond the pandemic."

Garraway's book covers the healthcare system and her family's experiences of it, and she said that they still had not got used to Draper being rushed back into hospital with infections and setbacks.

She said: "We still don’t know just how much better Derek can get, or worse. So really every time he has a rush into hospital, we’re still in that adrenaline phase of, 'is this the moment where he could be taken from us'. But also, there’s so many spikes of progression that no one’s giving up hope that there isn’t going to be a movement forward. So it’s managing that rollercoaster."