Care costs can be ruinous, even for a ‘rich’ TV star like Kate Garraway
KATE GARRAWAY has revealed that her late husband Derek’s round-the-clock care was costing her an astonishing £16k a month.
“How can I afford that?” she says in the new documentary Derek’s Story (ITVX), adding that it far outstrips her salary and that she’s in debt.
Predictably, a few unkind souls have gone online to trot out tired old tropes about her being loaded and living in a mansion, both of which are utter tripe.
But in their bid to carp at someone famous, they are wilfully missing the point of a film that, warts and all, is doing a big favour to everyone who cares for a loved one — by highlighting severe underfunding by the state.
All over the country, the government relies on parents, wives, husbands, daughters, sons, and in some cases even school-age children, to shoulder the physical and financial burden of providing 24/7 care for someone with serious needs who is living at home.
To many women in their fifties, the term “sandwich generation” is all too real as they bring up children while, according to MP Liz Kendall, one in five of them is also looking after an elderly relative as an unpaid carer.
“There is currently no national budget for care, and the amount spent is based on individual local authorities, so it is a classic postcode lottery as to whether you get any support,” she says.
There are many hoops to jump through while trying to access care help, and if someone’s needs tick the right boxes then they might be eligible for an NHS continuing health-care package, which is granted for health needs irrespective of someone’s financial circumstances.
Yet, despite being incontinent, unable to walk and barely able to speak, 56-year-old Derek — who went into a four-month coma after contracting Covid in 2020 and died in January this year — didn’t qualify for fully funded social care at home.
Kate, who acknowledges her situation is “less difficult” than for many, says: “We are entirely reliant on extraordinary carers, but the system in which they work is unbelievably complicated, unbelievably underfunded — and trying to meet an impossible need.”
Indeed, it is. So full credit to Kate for opening the doors to her home, and heart, and using her TV platform to highlight a plight echoed in thousands of homes across the country.
Irrespective of your circumstances, caring for a loved one with serious needs can be lonely, exhausting and financially ruinous.
And this important film shows why the next government (aka Labour) faces a tough task to find the money needed to throw at this escalating issue before it becomes a full-blown national crisis.
WHO did Roger roger?
That’s the question being whispered around the avenues and alleyways of a posh neighbourhood in Bristol after this gold plaque appeared on a street bench.
“For my love, 06.09.69 – 25.12.23. Husband, Father, Adulterer. Yes, Roger, I knew.” Roger that.
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” said the first passer-by to spot it, while others wonder if it’s a spoof.
Time will tell. But either way, it could spark a new trend.
Revenge is a dish best served gold.
EM, YOU ROCK IT
FOLLOWING her split from husband Sebastian Bear-McClard, model and actress Emily Ratajkowski has created an eye-catching new “divorce ring” out of her diamond engagement band.
“I wanted to think about how I could repurpose it and create a new narrative and celebrate my new chapter,” she said, showing off the result to Instagram followers.
Attagirl.
As Zsa Zsa Gabor once said: “I never hated a man enough to give him his diamonds back.”
A HUGE well done to British ultra-runner Jasmin Paris, who has become the first woman to complete the 100-mile “toughest race in the world” within the 60-hour time limit.
The Barkley Marathons, in the US state of Tennessee, sees finishers doing the equivalent of climbing and descending Mount Everest twice.
Here is the Midlothian-based mother of two – one of just 20 people to have achieved this mighty feat since 1989 – struggling for air after a final sprint uphill.
A look of utter exhaustion not dissimilar to mine when I encounter more than one flight of stairs.
WITH our public services and Armed Forces falling apart at the seams, it may interest you to know that the UK sent £8.2million of aid to China last year.
Yes, China. The country London and Washington have publicly identified as the source of serious cyber attacks on our politicians and institutions and a nation that has the world’s second-largest total wealth of around $84trillion.
Utter madness.
ADORE BLIMEY, BRUCE
WHEN actor Bruce Willis celebrated his 69th birthday last week, his wife Emma posted: “Happy birthday, my love.
“You are the gift that keeps giving.”
On the same day, his ex-wife Demi Moore posted a photo of her and Bruce holding hands at his and Emma’s home, with the caption: “Happy birthday BW.
“We love you and so grateful for you.”
Bruce, who was diagnosed with brain disorder aphasia in 2022, was married to Demi for 13 years.
They have three adult daughters who were all there to give him a birthday hug, along with his two young girls by Emma, to whom he’s been happily married for 15 years.
When a man is cherished by that many women – including a current and ex wife – you know that he’s a good soul.
FORMER Top Gear presenters Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris are heading out on a televised road trip around Europe.
Then, of course, we have Gordon Ramsay, Fred Sirieix and Gino D’Acampo’s road trip, Anton Du Beke and Giovanni Pernice’s Adventures In Spain, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s Long Way Round, Clarkson, Hammond and May doing their Grand Tours, Jack Whitehall travelling with his father Michael, actors Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish travelling around Scotland, and Bradley Walsh and son Barney journeying across Europe in Breaking Dad.
Memo to those TV commissioners: women have friendships and can travel too.
HE news that Aaron Taylor-Johnson may have been offered the role of James Bond has divided opinion.
Not least because he’s a modern man in every sense and, traditionally, the Bond character is an old-fashioned womaniser.
But even though Aaron adores his wife Sam – I sat next to them at dinner once and defy you to find a couple more at ease and in love with each other – and is an unabashed family man, he’s also an actor.
Consequently, no one complained that he wasn’t actually John Lennon when he appeared in Nowhere Boy, or Russian Count Vronsky in Anna Karenina, so why not a lothario British spy?
As for looking the part, I think we can all agree he’s nailed it.
CERTAIN applicants for the third series of The Traitors have been caught conspiring online to try to win the show.
Their plan was to use code words to establish who were Faithfuls or Traitors, then split the £120,000 prize pot. Yeah, right.
Anyone who’s watched the hit show will tell you that you can plot all you like with your fellow contestants, but when that much money is at stake someone will always shaft you at the last minute.
GUTTER SNIPES
NO apology is needed from me to the Princess of Wales.
I’ve been saying for weeks that she should be left in peace to recover from whatever operation she’s had.
As for those who are still peddling conspiracy theories following her heartfelt video message, words fail me.
The perpetrators are doing it for money-generating clickbait, but what about those agreeing with them, in the comments section below such callous lunacy?
I seriously wonder about their intellect.
Or are they the product of a school that taught them what to think rather than how?
HOW did the Princess of Wales keep her cancer diagnosis secret for so long?
Well, perhaps by not telling her brother-in-law and his wife, for starters.
It seems that the first Harry and Meghan knew of it was along with the rest of us.
And once the news was made public, they reportedly sent a “private” message of support to Kate and William.
As private, it seems, as the Sussexes’ worldwide privacy tour.