Kate Garraway has dedicated her National Television Award (NTA) to her late husband Derek Draper, calling for more support for carers as she collected her gong.
She completed a hat-trick in the best authored documentary category, winning on Wednesday evening for Kate Garraway: Derek’s Story, which followed the final year of Draper’s life before he died in January aged 56 after a lengthy battle with the long-term effects of Covid.
It followed on from two other programmes about his battle with Covid and her struggles navigating the care system, which picked up NTA gongs in the category in 2021 and 2022.
As she brought her daughter and son forward to stand beside her on stage, she reflected on how they are halfway through the first year of “firsts” without Draper, saying: “It’s so strange to be here – this one’s for you Derek, absolutely.”
The Good Morning Britain star thanked her team who helped create the documentary series and praised carers across the country, saying: “This one is for all those people who care.”
She also called for a system which better supports carers, adding: “We need a system which catches us when we fall, not catches us out… I’m going to keep the fight on for all of you.”
In the winners room after collecting her prize, Garraway reflected on the public’s support for the documentary.
“I think maybe that’s because it’s not about me and it’s not about Derek, it’s about really the subject matter which touches everybody, doesn’t it?” she said.
“Everybody knows somebody who needs care of one sort or another, and if they don’t now, they will do… so I think hopefully it’s given those people a bit of a voice.”
On the documentary triggering a dialogue about the role of carers and a lack of funding in the system, Garraway said professional carers saved her husband’s life “many, many times” over a number of years – time which had “such value” to her and their children.
She told reporters: “There are millions of people out there caring for love, unsupported, worried about their bills, and you know everybody has the right to live the best life they can and I think it’s one of those things, until you’re in it, you don’t realise the value of it.
“So hopefully, though, this means that people are getting a voice heard and are carrying on fighting.”
She told of “thousands and thousands and thousands” of letters she and her team received in the wake of the documentaries about her husband – many from people who cared for loved ones whom she called “unsung, wonderful heroes”.
On politicians hopefully taking note, she said: “That would be lovely wouldn’t it? That would be lovely.
“I think there’s probably will on all political sides, but I guess if we all come together and make sure that it’s a priority, that it will happen.”
Speaking from the red carpet ahead of the ceremony, Garraway told the PA news agency: “The comments I’ve had and the emails and the letters have been so wonderful, and so obviously it’s been very sad in a way, because you’d love him to be here, or even if he wasn’t well enough to be actually here then to be going home to tell him all about it.
“But on the other hand, he will be so happy, I think that the issues that he wanted raised are being raised and so hopefully that’s good.”
Garraway said he would have been “very proud of these two”, referring to their children Darcey and Billy, who “get very shy at these things but wanted to come”.
She added that it is “wonderful” to have the “Draper gang”.
