Kate Garraway said it “feels wrong” to attend the National Television Awards tonight without her husband, Derek Draper.

Her ITV documentary, Finding Derek, is up for an award in the Authored Documentary category.

The documentary aired in March and it focused on her husband Derek Draper, from Chorley, and his battle with long Covid.

In the film, Kate offered an “intimate insight into coping with the impact of COVID-19” as Derek remains in hospital a year on from contracting the virus.

Since then, the virus has ravaged his body and he has suffered organ damage and heart failure.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Kate revealed more about the award nomination and admitted that it “feels wrong” to be attending the NTAs without him.

In the video segment, she recalled her very first trip to the NTAs when I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, which she featured in back in 2019, was up for a nomination.

She recalled: “Derek babysat that night.

“When they won I remember calling him up and saying ‘I wish you’d have been here. I’ll probably never be on this stage ever again’.

“I didn’t know what was coming for us both.”

She added that she has been “feeling really emotional” about heading to the awards ceremony tonight.

Lancashire Telegraph: Derek Draper (Photo: Tim Ireland/PA)Derek Draper (Photo: Tim Ireland/PA)

She explained: “I’m wondering whether to go at all. It feels a bit wrong to go, it feels a bit wrong asking people to vote because it’s such a difficult subject.”

However, she later acknowledged the importance of the award and what it will mean for Covid sufferers across the nation.

Yesterday, she even put out a tweet asking people to vote for the documentary.

She wrote: “ [I] have felt torn asking you to vote for #FindingDerek.

“But a stranger just changed my mind! She told me her sister died two weeks ago from Covid heart damage . So not for but for the lives devastated please vote.

 

 

In a later tweet she added: “It would be amazing if your vote helped others feel they aren’t forgotten whether because #covid has effected them directly or it’s fallout.

"So many are waiting for treatment for so many things as our #nhs struggles to cope.”

She echoed these same words in the Good Morning Britain segment today.

She said: “There are millions of people still suffering from Covid.

“There are people witing for treatment for other things because of the strain the pandemic put on the NHS.

“As we get on with our lives, these people are starting to feel a bit forgotten.”

The show’s host, Martin Lewis, said :”I think you should go [to the NTAs]– you should go with pride. It will be bittersweet.

“Derek is proud of you as a journalist and this is a journalistic piece of work that you have done which has shone a light on the difficulties people have faced.

“win or lose you hold your head up high”.

Kate also appeared on ITV’s This Morning today (9 September) to provide an update on her husband’s welfare.

 

 

Speaking to Holly and Phil, she said: “Derek is back at home now which makes a huge difference.

“His progress is tough if I’m honest. It feels like there is no change, it feels painfully slow.

“He still has very little movement and still can’t talk really.

“However, he does understand everything. You feel like he can understand even though he can [say] things back – which must be a nightmare for him.”

“He sleeps a lot of the day which is 20 hours of the day.

“Sometimes he will fall asleep talking to you which I know a lot of people have done with me over the years,” she joked.

Kate added that Derek’s long covid symptoms are “extreme” and lead to organ failure but explained that there are “millions out there which have had their lives devastated”.

The National Television Awards will air tonight on ITV at 7:30pm. 

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