Kate Garraway has made her home wheelchair accessible for husband Derek Draper’s return

Kate Garraway has converted her home for when husband Derek Draper returns amid his year-long coronavirus battle.

The TV presenter, 53, has made their North London property wheelchair accessible and installed a hospital bed in the lounge room as the virus has damaged the former lobbyist’s muscles.

Viewers will be able to see the renovation work take place when the Good Morning Britain star’s documentary, Kate Garraway: Finding Derek, airs on Tuesday.

The broadcaster transformed the ground floor of their house last year as she hoped the author would have recovered before the third lockdown, but sadly, his condition hasn’t improved and she hasn’t been able to see him since Christmas.  

Kate shared an update on her long-term partner, also 53, in an interview with The Mirror, admitting: ‘He has changed. Derek is physically very affected.

‘His legs are like sticks, he has no muscle left. In terms of his movement, he’s physically affected.’

The couple, who share children Darcey, 15, and Billy, 11, have been married since 2005. 

In a teaser clip from the programme, the TV star recalls the ‘devastating’ moment Derek told her he feared he couldn’t go on. 

Kate says it was ‘terrible’ to think he had reached such a low point as they spoke on the phone.

She confesses: ‘Derek had been drifting in and out of consciousness and when he said that, it was absolutely devastating, but it showed me he was still in there. Even though it was terrible to think his spirits were so low’. 

Kate then tells her husband he will get better with time, before he can eventually resume his old life. 

While Covid is no longer in Derek’s system, the virus left him battling kidney failure, liver failure, heart failure and damage to his pancreas. 

The journalist first invited a crew into her home last September with the hope that the film would end with him returning home.

But seven months later, the show will instead focus on his stint in hospital as well as the many months of recovery that are left.

The psychotherapist has lost eight stone, with Kate claiming he will behave differently.

However, she believes his comeback may be a ‘beautiful thing’ as they will have the chance to fall in love all over again. 

During an appearance on The One Show last Thursday, the media personality said her spouse is ‘trapped in the middle ground’ as he is sometimes able to communicate with her before slipping out of consciousness. 

Kate said: ‘One of things I’m here to talk about is the documentary and what you will see is that this time last year, I was, like a lot of us, wondering what was coming our way. 

‘I was fearing the worst, on air reading headlines about the earliest cases of people contracting coronavirus and then I suddenly found myself right in the middle of it.

‘And I’d say there was weeks and months of living minute by minute, wondering if I was going to get the call to say whether he lived or died.’