Kate Garraway has revealed that she found a touching message from her husband Derek Draper as she packed his bag for hospital. Derek has been in a coma in intensive care for the past ten weeks after contracting coronavirus. In a new interview with the Sun, the Good Morning Britain star said the hospital had asked her to drop off a few familiar items for him, including the shampoo and body wash he likes, which she put in a small suitcase she had last used on a work trip before lockdown. "I opened it up and there was a card he'd written for me, which I'd read at the time. It says how much he loves me, how proud of me he is, and that he was feeling so good about us. It was just so romantic and it feels so odd reading it now he's in this state," she shared.
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WATCH: Heartbreak for Kate Garraway as she describes Derek Draper's health
"You know that feeling, when you're driving along and someone pulls out in front of you and your heart lurches, so you drive really cautiously for the next five minutes and then calm down? Well, it's like you’re constantly in that heart lurch stage, without the calming down bit. It's the same for Derek's poor parents and sisters too. They're in Chorley and want to be here but can't be."
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Kate and Derek have been married since September 2005
Kate, 53, has shown incredible strength during her husband's health battle as she cares for their two children, Darcey, 14, and Billy, ten. But she admitted it's sometimes the little things that floor her. "Derek always writes 'R' on the calendar for when it's recycling day," she revealed. "His writing is all over it — then suddenly we turned the page for June and it just stopped because he hadn't planned that far ahead.
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"There are times when I can't bear to look around this house. It's full of things he's chosen and we've chosen together, and when Darcey and Billy are with each other... There are moments as parents where you take pleasure because you see them do something, or change in some way, and that bonds you."
Derek with their children, Darcey and Billy
On Friday, Kate bravely returned to GMB to give viewers an update on Derek's health battle, and how it had impacted their family. The star explained that Derek was now coronavirus free, but that the illness had played havoc with his body, impacting his internal organs, including his heart and kidneys. The mother-of-two also revealed Derek's emotional last words to his children as he was taken into an ambulance. She said: "They put him in the ambulance and put a mask on him to breathe and Darcey and Billy came out all worried and said 'You're the best children anybody could ever ask for, look after mum, be good for her.' He went into the ambulance and that was it. Went into hospital and went straight to intensive care."
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The GMB star revealed Derek's last words to his family
She also revealed Derek’s final words to her on the phone before he was put in an induced coma. Kate tearfully told viewers: "He said, 'I love you, I have to leave you.' And I said, 'It's only for 3 or 4 days and you're going to be fine, this is good because this is what you wanted and it will allow you to rest' and he just said, 'You've saved my life,' because I think he thought I had persuaded the doctors to put him in a coma, obviously I hadn't.
"He said: 'You saved my life and I don't just mean now, I mean everything, being married to you and the children, you've saved my life' and then I said 'I love you, I love you', and the doctors said, 'He's gone, he is under,' and that's it, that's the last time I spoke to him."