Good Morning Britain's Kate Garraway has played down her resilience, telling Sunday with Miriam on RTÉ Radio 1 that a heart scare at the end of last year was a wake-up call to look after herself.
Garraway has been caring for her husband Derek Draper since he contracted Covid-19 in March 2020. He was in a coma for months and in hospital for over a year. Now, he requires constant care.
Garraway has since become an acclaimed documentary maker and author as she chronicles her changed family life and campaigns for carers. She has just published her new book, The Strength of Love: Embracing an Uncertain Future with Resilience and Optimism.
When asked by Miriam O'Callaghan how she was coping, Garraway replied: "In terms of staying strong, I don't know that I am that strong. And I did at the end of last year have a heart scare, which meant in the early hours of the morning I had to be rushed to hospital."
"It still isn't entirely clear what that was," Garraway recounted, "but it was a heart event - whether it was angina or whether it was some kind of stress-related effect.
"But that was a wake-up call for me, because when you are in a situation where somebody might live or die and that goes on... I talk about it in the book - adrenaline being a kind of 'frenemy'. On the one level, adrenaline gives you superpowers, but over a sustained period it does start to affect the way you think and the way your body operates, telling your body to be in a state of emergency all the time."
"So I've had to try to relearn the way I approach things and manage the sort of negative spiral of thoughts you can have," Garraway continued.
"I'm trying to sort of not jump to conclusions [about Derek's health] and use lots of different strategies."
Out tomorrow - but finally get my hands on a copy - hope you like it!@SmoothRadio pic.twitter.com/zi5ZEfY7V3
— Kate Garraway (@kategarraway) September 13, 2023
When asked what hopes she has for Draper to make a recovery, Garraway replied: "I still fundamentally believe in the power of hope."
"It is about not conceding to the darkness, really," she explained.
"But as regards Derek's actual condition, we still have no clear diagnosis. Obviously, you know, it was as a result of Covid, but in terms of what it looks like, [it] is very new for the medical profession. There is no established trajectory."
"Now, of course, that's not great - but on the other hand it also means that even the most negative predictions could be wrong too," Garraway added.
"I do still have hope. What I do know now is it's going to take a long time."
"I think what we're trying to do is think of life as a collection of moments," she told listeners. "And if we can have more good ones in a day than bad, then that's winning."
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