KATE GARRAWAY. DEREKS STORY. TUE 26 March - ITV 9pm

[Blondeshavemorefun]

This will be a real tear jerker

i watched the two previous programmes she and Derek did

this is the final year of Derek life and told in his words

Kate Garraway (https://uk.news.yahoo.com/tagged/kate-garraway/) will front a new ITV programme documenting the last year of her late husband Derek Draper’s (https://uk.news.yahoo.com/tagged/derek%20draper/) life: Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story.
The Good Morning Britain (https://uk.news.yahoo.com/tagged/good-morning-britain/) star’s husband died in January (https://uk.news.yahoo.com/derek-draper-tributes-kate-garraway-husband-covid-123921217.html)
after his battle with COVID.

She previously made two programmes about his health struggles — Finding Derek and Caring For Derek — and will now share his final chapter which will air on ITV on 26 March.

The film starts in May 2023 and looks at the final year of Draper’s life, including both sweet family moments and an insight into his health battle.

But it also looks back and reflects on his life before he contracted COVID in 2020, including his career as a political adviser, his romance with TV star Garraway — who he has two children with — and how Draper’s illness changed their relationship while they maintained their close bond.

The film also highlights the challenges faced by those living with serious illness and disability and those who care for them and will feature contributions from Draper’s carer Jake.

The programme is set to air in just a few days, close to three months after Draper died at the age of 56.

It will be on ITV at 9pm on Tuesday 26 March.
Documentary was Derek Draper’s idea
Garraway has said that she hadn’t planned to make a third documentary but that the idea came from her husband.

Obviously when we started making this documentary early last year, we had no idea the events that would unfold that ultimately took Derek from us,” she said. “And in January 2024, after he had passed, I wondered if it was right that it should ever come to air.

"But I didn’t want to let those who have given us so much support over the last four years down, and the carers paid and unpaid who in their thousands of letters to me, feel Derek’s story has given them a voice. Also, I remember so vividly that the idea of making this third documentary at all came from Derek himself.”

She went on: “At the beginning of January 2023, he’d been released from a four month spell in hospital for sepsis and we were very positive about his recovery. Derek was determined to keep on getting better and improving.

One day, we were sitting together while I was caring for him and he suddenly, from nowhere, asked, ‘Are we making another documentary?’ I said, ‘Well I hadn’t really planned to. Were you thinking that you would like to?’ And he said firmly, 'Yes'."

The presenter said she told Draper it should be his story, in his voice, explaining: "Derek got very emotional at the idea, because his words and speech were so limited and there were so many things he wanted to say about the struggle we were all having as a family and he wanted to speak up about it."

When she asked Draper what his main message was, he replied: "Never give up fighting for what you believe in and for the people you love."
“We had to find a way of allowing Derek’s voice to be heard and while having to finish it without him has been so hard, I am delighted that the film is a tribute to Derek and his incredible spirit,” she added.

Looking forward to seeing this when I'm in the right mood. I'm a big fan of Kate Garroway and she's been through so much and been so brave in sharing her life, and is highlighting the difficulties people have with caring for loved ones.
I hope her and Derek make a difference as they do have a platform, therefore a voice for all

Haven't seen her other documentaries and won't be watching this one either. Each to their own but it's not for me. I find the voyeuristic viewing of someone's health difficulties a bit intrusive and disturbing. Very sad for them all but I don't want to see the ins and outs of their family life.

It’s a wonder you clicked on the thread really. Thanks for letting us know....I guess. 😅

When Kate talks about "a different kind of love" i think its something that needs to be discussed more. When this kind of thing happens between a couple and the intimacy is affected or disappears its something that seen as trivial if a carer dares to mention it.

I agree. People are judged for it, like a few posters judged and twisted what she said earlier in the thread. Being a carer for a partner changes your relationship and it can be hard to come to terms with that and find a new normal.

Blimey. Just when you thought that the nasty, vile and toxic types who behaved so shamefully towards Kate Middleton just last week had crawled back under their stones, up they pop on a thread like this.

Truly, I despair of human-kind when I read threads like this.

Can't believe it's been allowed to stand, to be honest. How is this making people's lives easier, which I thought was meant to be one of the tenets of MN.

For what it's worth, I've never found Kate to be wallowing or asking for sympathy. Every conversation I've ever seen her conduct on this subject has her constantly stressing how it is for so many others in similar situations. How narrow-minded are you that you can't see this?

Easier to jump on a bandwagon and put the boot in, I suppose.

Well it wasn’t one of the worst! That’s my point!

It shows that people can’t win. When Kate Middleton said very little about her situation, people said terrible things about her online. Kate Garraway has been more open, said a lot and people have said terrible things about her online.

@SilkFloss and@PlayOurSong
Absolutely agree. You know who you are.
What nasty bunch of individuals.

Kate Garraway has more balls than all you keyboard warriors put together.

So true

The pp said it was one of the worst cases that we know of. Are you really trying to say it wasn’t?

He went from being a normal 50 year old man, to spending weeks in a coma, covid damaging all his organs, not being able to communicate well, contracting sepsis etc and dying a few years later due to the damage caused.

Well, you do have the option of not watching it, along with me and millions of others.

@TotalAbsenceOfImperialRaiment well as I did the thread obv I wanted to watch it

And it was well done imo

All the money in the world couldn't help Derek - or others

And this show , showed the effect of caring for someone who she loved deeply who needed 24/7 care

And yes it was still love. A different love but love

I've not watched any of the documentaries but I have followed what has happened to this family.

I see an awful lot of judgement on this thread about a family who been through a horrific experience.

I don't doubt that KG is doing these productions and books to make money and I don't begrudge her for it.

It's all very well saying they should have put money away for the tax bill, but they won't be the first family who never envisioned that "the good times" would end. Potentially KG had no idea about DD's tax situation and has been left to pick up the pieces along with being effectively a sole parent, care provider and bread winner.

Care fees can be crippling and the threshold for receiving NHS funding through continuing healthcare is ridiculously high. Even people with very significant health issues largely only get partial funding and that's hugely variable depending on where you live.

The reality is the state can't afford to provide these levels of care and I understand why we need to contribute. The problem is the system is inflexible and fails to take into account the impact of running down family assets in situations where we are not dealing with elderly people who have no dependents, but young people with children still at home.

If these programs shed some light on that, well I think that's a good thing.

Sure she could have sold her house, move the children from their friends and schools to free up money to pay for care but at what cost to her children's welfare? Would you do that if you had an alternative?

I hope she had DD's consent but I know if I was in that position I'd have been on board with her doing whatever she had to do to raise money for my care maintaining some home security for the children.

There are lots of tragic stories re: COVID and I'm sure there are worse out there. It doesn't mean that this situation has not been "up there" in being in that top cohort of both individual and family impact.

Being sympathetic to KG and her children doesn't mean you can't feel that emotion for others.

I do wonder how many poster who been negative towards KG on this thread would have coped themselves in similar circumstances and the choices they would have made?

It seems Kate has helped people as they sent her cards saying lovely things.

Well said.

I watched this last night

The raw honesty and truth and the highlighting what families go through was extremely moving.

I found her honesty about how the relationship changed illuminating not selfish.

And if I'm ever as ill as Derek I want a carer like Jake. These people who care are so unappreciated in society.

Very well said, @BreadInCaptivity and @SilkFloss. This thread is absolutely shameful for the virtue signalling and condemnation of a woman who has been through utter hell. I don't blame Kate Garraway for one second for putting out there what her husband and family went through, I think it's pretty essential: so many of the covid deniers are desperate to pretend none of it ever happened, while the reality is that too many people are still suffering the consequences of the pandemic.

Nor do I blame her for using what she does as a career just to try to keep her family afloat, and for publicising just how much it costs to get basic care. It's a disgrace that adequate care was not provided automatically, and I welcome everything that Kate Garraway and others can do to publicise how awful our care system is.

Bloody hell. So someone gave her an expensive candle and she used it. Put her in the stocks and pelt her with stones, why don't you.

Nothing 'shameful' about pointing how questionable it is if someone as neurologicallly altered as Derek can consent to have such personal details put out there That his privacy and dignity should be protected, that he shouldn't be filmed being fed and choking on his food.

Baic care does 'not cost this much'. You and I wouldn't pay £4000 a month, it is means tested and reflects salary. The fact they were in such a mess already financially with tax bills etc obviously adds to the burden but high earners should obviously pay for their care.

There isnt any hate for Garraway, just pity for the poor man once again being 'shown' on national TV. RIP Derek.

I thought it was a sensitive portrayal of a very difficult situation.

There will be countless other families struggling with the demands of caring for a family member, who is no longer the person they were.
The programme took care to protect Derek’s dignity whilst showing some of the daily struggles, which must have been hard to balance.
I really hope Kate has kinder folk surrounding her in real life than some of the spiteful bitter people on this thread.

It's not spiteful to question the ethics of flying someone very unwell/bedbound/immobile 5500 miles to Mexico. It's questioning why it was necessary for a treatment that isn't available on but presumably researched and dismissed by the NHS. The DVT risk for someone immobile would have been huge, and it said in the articles that did mention Mexico that he had a heart attack then 14 hours of surgery to remove blood clots from his brain. Let alone adding in the cost of this travel and treatment.

It's not spiteful to wonder if Derek would still be alive today if not for this treatment/travel. It's not spiteful to feel sad that the poor man was medevacced back unconscious, didn't have any of his family with him when he died (because technically he did die there and never regained consciousness). And did he consent to this treatment and was it against medical advice here? There is a thing known as fluctuating consent in medical terms, and I feel horribly sorry for Derek that he went through so much, appearing to be improving and yet this was his ending.

No one is saying for one second that it wasn't hard for Kate or her family. But why does she need to keep spilling this information, even her children's last words to their father for ££s. Surely some things should be private and I really hope that this is the last yet sorriest chapter of Derek's story.

£4,000 a week!

My point was you or I wouldn't pay that cost, it is means tested and will be a direct reflection of her combined earnings from itv and Smooth radio. High earners should pay for their care, that's what the message should be.

'I really hope Kate has kinder folk surrounding her in real life than some of the spiteful bitter people on this thread.'

There aren't any bitter spiteful people on this thread. Look at Twitter/X if you want to see that.

Rather concerns for a man who endured a chronic condition and sadly died yet we all know exact details of how physically and mentally compromised he was and that doesn't seem right.

There are plenty of people who try to raise money so that treatment abroad for loved ones can be paid for.
The NHS doesn’t cover a lot of treatments purely because it is too expensive, and it has to share it’s resources to treat a lot of people.