GMB’s Ben Shephard feared for my sanity and thought I was bonkers when I flew sick Derek to Mexico, says Kate Garraway
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.
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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