Kate Garraway's third and final documentary about her late husband Derek Draper has shed a much-needed light on the financial crisis hundreds of thousands of people find themselves in while caring for their loved-ones.
Derek's Story, which aired on ITV on Tuesday night, followed the last few weeks of the former politician's life and featured several heartbreaking revelations about Derek and his wife, as well as their two children's own plight to get the care he so badly needed. Good Morning Britain host Kate, 56, and her children Darcey, 18, and Billy, 15, cared for Derek throughout his his four-year health battle with the help of multiple carers.
Despite the fact TV presenter Kate makes between £500,000 and £800,000 a year thanks to her ITV salary, the mum-of-two has been left with huge debt following Derek's death - a common occurrence among the other hundreds of thousands carers across the UK and Ireland.
Derek's around-the-clock treatment cost his wife a staggering £16,000 a month, which resulted in her racking up huge debts. The care added up to more than her monthly salary at ITV, she says, and this was on top of having to pay her mortgage and bills. While Kate could seemingly afford to fork out the huge costs every month, the TV presenter was still left with crippling debt.
Kate Garraway has shared details of her crippling debt after caring for ill husband, Derek Draper (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)So where does this leave people with more ordinary and less paid jobs, who have been forced to give up their careers in order to become a full-time carer for their loved ones?
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Speaking exclusively to The Mirror about the ongoing crisis following the release of Kate's eye-opening documentary, Rachel Warren, a Senior Policy and Research Manager at Marie Curie has said that over 90,000 people in the UK are living in poverty due to the crippling crisis.
Sharing her thoughts on the ITV documentary, Rachel addressed the criticism Kate has faced since the film aired. Many ITV viewers took to social media during the broadcast to label Kate as 'privileged' in comparison to 'normal people with normal jobs' who are struggling and in much worse situations.
One such comment on X, formerly known as Twitter, reads: "This one hits home, many of us have had to care for elderly relatives paying extortionate fees, I’m watching in disbelief at this woman who has no shame in pleading ‘poverty’ when she clearly hasn’t a clue of what the rest of us have to do."
However, Marie Curie's Rachel feels that ITV's Derek's Story became a voice for many people who haven't been lucky enough to have their struggles heard.
"The documentary has spotlighted the huge challenge that so many people are facing. It’s clear that in many ways Kate is extremely privileged and she does acknowledge that. It’s so clear how tough life is for her and her husband even in such privileged circumstances," the expert told.
"I think that’s really actually a very powerful way of shedding light on how incredibly and unbelievably difficult it must be for people who are not on any kind of an income that she’s privileged to have. It’s quite thoughtful, and it encouraged people to reflect on just how bad the situation must be for so many.
Derek was looked after by professional carers as well as Kate"I hope they can see the documentary as not just showing at a light on her particular experience of this, but also a representation of other hundreds of thousands of families. I think Kate has provided a lot of insight into how hard it is and how life-changing it is for families."
The ITV documentary looks back at Derek's struggles with his health after contracting the virus, with scenes showing his carer Jake helping him with hyperbaric oxygen therapy in a bid to aid his recovery. Another shows a mobility coach trying to get Derek back on his feet - but all of the treatment didn't come cheaply and has left Kate with £ 800,000 worth of debt.
Revealing she is at her limit, Kate says in the doc: "Derek's care costs more than my salary from ITV and that is before you pay for a mortgage, before you pay any household bills, before you pay for anything for the kids, so we are at a crunch point. I am in debt. I can't earn enough money to cover my debt because I am managing Derek's care and 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."
Turning to Kate, documentary director Lucy Wilcox responds by saying viewers will be 'surprised' to hear her talk of financial ruin. She says people will assume she's "loaded" with being on TV. Kate replies: "Listen, I'm not going to pretend that I am poorly paid, I have an incredible job that I love, which is well-paid, but it's not enough."
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The morning TV presenter estimates her debts to be between £500,000-£800,000. "If it is like this for me, what is it like for everybody else? Time and time again the system tells us that Derek isn't sick enough, doesn't have enough of a health need to qualify for funded care," she explains, highlighting that she won't be alone.
"I've appealed but that still hasn't been processed two-and-a-half, three years later. If this is what it's like for me, what on Earth is it like for everybody else? Something has to be done, or the whole service, the people working in it, everything is going to break. Derek's care, the basic needs, not including any therapy, which I am happy to pay on top, is nearly £4,000 a week. How can I afford that?
"How can anybody afford £16,000 a month? Please, God, there could be another 40 years of this." She continued: "We are entirely reliant on extraordinary carers but the system in which they work is unbelievably complicated and underfunded, and trying to meet an impossible need."
Sadly, in reality, over 90,000 people who are caring for their loved ones across the UK end up dying in poverty due to the colossal costs Kate speaks of, and Marie Curie spokesperson Rachel thinks that Kate being honest about her debt is not only helpful to others, but admirable too.
"Kate highlighting her debt is admirable. The actual cost and the level of debt she is in is a common case in these situations. I think her speaking about it has shone a light on a massive issue. It’s an astounding amount of money to face and a staggering monthly cost," she says.
Derek passed away at the age of 56 in January after a four year battle (ITV)Heartbreakingly, an estimated 90,000 people are currently dying in poverty every single year due to the crisis. "Unfortunately we know that this is a very common situation, and people on lower incomes are even more worse affected. So an estimated 90,000 carers are actually dying in poverty every single year.
"This means that the ill person is living in poverty during their end of life care, and the person caring for them is then left living in poverty once the are gone. This is often caused by a double loss of income of the person who is dying and a loss of income of the person who has given up work to care for them. As well as the loss of income, there is also hugely increased costs for the carer to deal with.
"For example, they need to keep their home warm at all times and keep it warmer than they typically would due to the person’s illness. There’s an added cost of running medical devices from their homes - such as ventilation equipment and hospital beds which can be very costly - and that was highlighted in the documentary too - Kate had to deal with those costs like every other carer. Those costs combined with the drop of income are pushing loads people into poverty as a result of being at the end of their life and as a result of having to care for that person.
"Clearly, £16,000 a month in costs is completely unaffordable to people. I think it points for a need for the government to review how social care is funded and create a long-term sustainable funding which provides immediate relief to carers who are right now, suffering from living in poverty. Living in poverty means that not only can they heat their home as much as they need to, and they might have to choose heating over eating and all of these impacts will really profoundly further impact on person who is dying and the health of the person who is caring for them."
Marie Curie are now calling for changes to help support some of those 90,000 people who are in this position. One of these changes is the sick being given early access to their state pension. "Everyone who is terminally ill would be able to access that state pension regardless of their age to help increase their income at a time when they are struggling," Rachel explains.
The other call for change is a social tariff for energy costs for people who are facing increased energy costs amid terminal illness. "We don’t want these people to be penalised and are able to heat their homes and run their medical equipment. It’s the least the government could do. These are tiny asks for the government but would make a colossal difference to people's lives."
Marie Curie’s free Support Line and webchat is available to anyone with an illness they’re likely to die from and those close to them. It offers practical and emotional support on everything from symptom management and day-to-day care to financial information and bereavement support. Visit mariecurie.org.uk/support or call free on 0800 090 2309
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