Kate Garraway has revealed the monthly cost of her husband Derek Draper’s care cost more than her ITV salary, causing her to rack up huge debts.
The Good Morning Britain presenter announced her husband had died at the beginning of January after several years of serious health complications due to COVID.
The former political adviser was 56 years old.
Garraway previously said she spent £16,000 a month on her husband’s basic care needs and mobility therapy.
Now, in a new documentary chronicling the final year of Draper’s life, Garraway admits the huge costs left her in debt.
“Derek’s care costs more than my salary from ITV and that is before you pay for a mortgage, before you pay any household bills, before you pay for anything for the kids, so we are at a crunch point,” the presenter says during the programme.
“I am in debt. I can’t earn enough money to cover my debt because I am managing Derek’s care and I can’t even use the money I do have to support Derek’s recovery because it’s going on the basics all the time.”
She adds: “I’m not going to pretend that I am poorly paid, I have an incredible job that I love, which is well-paid, but it’s not enough.”
During two previous ITV documentaries – Finding Derek and Caring For Derek – Garraway said the cost of basic care for her husband was £4,000 a week, excluding the cost of therapy.
The presenter, 56, said at the time: “How can I afford that? How can anybody afford £16,000 a month?
“Please God, there could be another 40 years of this.”
Explaining the impact of caring for her husband, the presenter says in the programme she is not strong enough to push her husband’s wheelchair or get him into bed.
“We are entirely reliant on extraordinary carers but the system in which they work is unbelievably complicated, and underfunded, and trying to meet an impossible need,” she says.
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“Why is it that people who get sick and it’s no longer considered the right thing for them to be in hospital… why does coming home feel like falling off a cliff?”
Draper was left with extensive damage to his organs and needed daily care after contracting COVID in March 2020.
He was said to be one of the longest-suffering COVID patients, and returned to the family home, after spending 13 months in hospital.
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In the latest programme, Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story, Draper is heard speaking on camera for the first time saying: “I want you to hear my story.”
“I want to be heard,” he adds.
During the programme, Garraway said she was told by officials that Draper “isn’t sick enough” and “doesn’t have enough of a health need to qualify for funded care”.
“I’ve appealed but that still hasn’t been processed two-and-a-half, three years later,” she says.
“If this is what it’s like for me, what on Earth is it like for everybody else?
“Something has to be done, or the whole service, the people working in it, everything is going to break.”
Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story airs on Tuesday 26 March at 9pm on ITV1, ITVX and STV.
