The long goodbye

Kate Garraway shares a moving tribute to her late husband Derek Draper

- CAREN CLARK, HANNAH DAVIES, IAN MACEWAN

In March 2020, at the height of the first lockdown, Good Morning Britain presenter Kate Garraway’s husband Derek Draper was admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

He went on to spend 214 days on a ventilator and nearly four months in an induced coma, losing 8st, as well as his ability to speak properly.

Although he moved back home in April 2021, following 13 months in hospital, Draper continued to need round-the-clock care for lasting organ damage.

He was readmitted to intensive care with life-threatening sepsis in August 2022, before sadly dying on 3 January this year, aged 56, after suffering a cardiac arrest.