Kate Garraway describes ‘helplessness’ over Derek blood plasma donation

Good Morning Britain presenter Kate Garraway has described her "helplessness" as her husband Derek Draper continues to fight for his life after being struck down with coronavirus almost six months ago.

The 53-year-old former Labour lobbyist was rushed to hospital on March 29 suffering from coronavirus and was put into a medically induced coma.

Whilst Derek has now been taken out of the coma, and is virus free, he is lying in a minimum state of consciousness, meaning he can't walk or talk.

Kate was back on our screens on Friday to host Good Morning Britain alongside Ben Shephard.

The presenting duo discussed an appeal launched by the NHS for blood plasma from people who have had Covid-19 on today's edition of the ITV breakfast show.

Kate said: "So this was a strange thing that has sort has become a thing but it only happened because something I wanted to do for Derek, and I think one of the things you feel when someone's very sick, for whatever reason, but especially during this pandemic, is the sense of helplessness I think."

Ben agreed: "Yeah."

She continued "It felt like it was something I could do at the time when it would have helped Derek, the system wasn't there basically."

Ben added: "Too early."

Kate said: "But now it is very much there and much needed and people have come forward which is brilliant."

Ben read "The NHS is appealing for blood plasma from people who have had Covid."

"Paul O'Neill, who is big fan of the show, saw you talking about it, registered in minutes and he had enough Covid antibodies to meet the criteria."

Kate revealed last month that she considered donating her blood plasma to help Derek's battle coronavirus.

She said on GMB in August: "It was something that came to light that could be a useful tool, that I was asking if I could do back in April for Derek.

"Then it was pre the first trials of its use for Covid, so I wasn’t allowed to because they didn’t know how safe it would be for either Derek or for anyone else involved in it.

"But now it’s something that people are doing."

After contracting coronavirus, plasma contains antibodies that are used to help fight infection, which could be crucial in the fight against the pandemic.

The process to extract the plasma is called apheresis, and takes around 45 minutes according to the NHS website.

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV at 6am

• Kate Garraway
• Good Morning Britain

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