Kate Garraway was moved to tears as she spoke candidly about her husband's ongoing battle with coronavirus on Monday. The Good Morning Britain star appeared via video link to talk to her co-stars Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid about Derek Draper's recent breakthrough, confirming that he had recently mouthed his first word in six months.
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Revealing details of the bittersweet development, Kate confirmed that her husband had said "pain" in response to his medical team. The star revealed she was not with Derek at the time, but shared he had "very clearly mouthed the word". "And then later, I was watching and I saw him mouth it again," Kate said.
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She continued: "It is a huge breakthrough because even though it's heartbreaking because what it means is he feels pain, which we don't want… what it means is he's been able to connect a sensation in his body with his brain and connect that to his mouth to shape the word 'pain'."
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In heartbreaking detail, Kate then shared her deepest fears for her husband. "Is he in there? Is he locked in? I believe he is in there," she confided. "Now, that's a long way from him being Derek, with all his multiple words, of many colour, and all the love and all the feelings he has. It's a long way from all of that, but it's a start."
Kate and Derek have been married since 2005
Asked by Piers about this latest "glimmer of hope", Kate said, "I think the power of hope is huge, but you're also constantly trying to think, 'At what point do you have to start being real?' and, 'When is hope still real?'…
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"Now what I have to be careful of, in terms of the children and his family, is not running away with that and thinking, 'Ok, this is it. Within a couple of weeks he'll be back home', and all of that because it is still a long road to go, and we don't know how far down that road he can come. But it is a massive, massive moment.
The couple share two children together
"I was getting scared. I thought, 'If it's hard for me, what is it like for him trapped in there?' So I was getting scared that he might be giving up, you know, and so it feels like a fight for him.
"He's been able to fight out of this to utter the word 'pain'. Again, it's horrible because I don't want him to be feeling pain – it would have been much nicer if it had been, 'I love you darling Kate', 'Say hi to the children', or something! But it's the first step. It's a sign, I'm hoping that it's the beginning of recovery."
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