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DEREK Draper once labelled himself “pathetic” as he struggled to get out of his wheelchair, before bursting into tears.
The emotional moment was one of the many heartbreaking points in the nation’s longest-suffering Covid patient’s final documentary – Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story.
The doc aired this evening, with Derek finally getting a chance to tell his story “in his voice”.
Tragically, he never lived to see it screened – the dad-of-two died in January.
The doc showed how Kate stood by Derek’s side through his health battle – and looked back to their early years together.
It showed sweet moments between the dad and his children, as well as heartwrencing moments.
At one point Derek is working with his mobility therapist Cornel, who’s encouraging him to stand up out of the wheelchair he was bound to.
The dad can be seen working to try stand with the help of his walking frame.
The mobility therapist says encouragingly: “One, two, three and push – I’m not helping you much.
“I don’t want to help you too much, I don’t want to pull you up off the seat.”
But after Derek as he makes the first attempt at standing, he falls back into the chair and begins to wail.
His wife Kate, 56, comforts him: “It’s OK, darling – it is OK, I promise.”
Derek responds: “It’s pathetic.”
Kate continues: “It’s not pathetic, it isn’t pathetic. You are absolutely trying.”
Derek attempts to stand two further times, as Kate adds more encouragement: “You can take a breath, but keep going. You’re there. Well done! Keep going.”
But he fails to make the move, leaving him upset.
Kate later tells the cameras: “I want Derek to have less care, but in order for Derek to get to that point, you need support.”
Another part of the doc shares sweet unseen footage of Kate and Derek’s children at their dad’s bedside.
In one of the clips, Kate suggests her son Billy and Derek read out birthday cards she’d been sent.
Derek can be seen reading out one of the cards, and smirking at the sweet message.
Billy then reads out one of the birthday wishes, before Derek skims over another.
The dad says: “It’s from the neighbour Maggie.”
Billy then jokingly replies: “Well read it out, you can’t just say who it’s from.”
In another tender moment, daughter Darcey is snapped helping Kate while Derek is in a wheelchair.
The mum says: “Darcey, can you help me lift dad’s leg a little bit? Thank you.”
The teen can be seen helping her dad stand, and carefully helping him sit back down.
She then sweetly says: “There you go.”
Before helping her father into bed by swinging his legs around.
Young Darcy then walks around her father’s hospital bed, passing pillows from a nearby seat to her mum.
The teen helped carry her father’s coffin at his funeral last month.
Kate also revealed that paying for her late husband’s at-home care put her into debt.
Derek required round-the-clock help from care workers, as well as therapists to help him with his movement and speech, as part of his recovery.
He became one of the most severely affected Covid-19 patients back in 2020 when, after being put into a coma for 98 days, was left suffering from a number of ongoing, life-threatening conditions.
But despite his lengthy list of needs, the mum and her family were denied any Government funding, meaning the TV presenter had to hire in help at a large cost to the family.
She told the cameras: “Derek’s care costs more than my salary for my TV, and that’s before you’ve paid for a mortgage, before you’ve paid for any household bills, before you’ve paid for kids – so, we are at a crunch point.
“I am in debt and I can’t earn enough money to cover my debt because I am managing Derek’s care.
“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.
“I’m not going to pretend by the way that I am poorly paid, I have an incredible job that I love that is well paid, but it’s not enough.”
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