Kate Garraway reveals she’s been targeted by cruel scammers pretending to be the NHS
Kate Garraway reveals she’s been targeted by cruel scammers who pretend to be the NHS and warn her she’s at risk of Covid variant
Kate Garraway revealed on Good Morning Britain on Friday that she has been targeted by cruel scammers, who are sending her messages pretending to be from the NHS.
The presenter, 53, questioned Dr Amir Khan if it was really the NHS sending messages warning people about Covid variants discovered in their area.
Kate’s husband Derek Draper, 53, remains in intensive care nearly a year after he was first admitted to hospital with coronavirus.
Targeted: Kate Garraway revealed on Good Morning Britain on Friday that she has been targeted by cruel scammers, who are sending her messages pretending to be from the NHS
Kate asked Dr Amir: ‘They’ve identified another new variant, haven’t they? I don’t think it’s alarming at the moment but they’re looking at it more.
‘I have and I just wanted to check with you if this is likely to be real or not, I’ve noticed increasingly more on local WhatsApp groups and indeed on the Internet generally.’
Kate continued: ‘I am getting messages that look like they’re from the NHS, saying things like: “The South African variant has been discovered in your area, take extra care”.
Advice: The presenter, 53, questioned Dr Amir Khan if it was really the NHS sending messages warning people about Covid variants discovered in their area
Critically-ill: Kate’s husband Derek Draper, 53, remains in intensive care nearly a year after he was first admitted to hospital with coronavirus (pictured 2019)
Are they real? Kate said: ‘I am getting messages that look like they’re from the NHS, saying things like: “The South African variant has been discovered in your area, take extra care”‘
‘Is it likely that the NHS is doing that? It looks like it is, but there’s also something about it that doesn’t look official as well.
‘Have you noticed this happening? Can you confirm if this is real or not? Or is it part of the spamming that’s going on?’.
Dr Amir replied: ‘I’ll be honest with you, Kate. I haven’t heard about this and I work closely with the NHS and in public health campaigns.
Unsure: Dr Amir replied: ‘I’ll be honest with you, Kate. I haven’t heard about this and I work closely with the NHS and in public health campaigns’
She added: ‘Is it likely that the NHS is doing that? It looks like it is, but there’s also something about it that doesn’t look official as well’
‘I’ve not been made aware of such a messaging services so I would stay be mindful of unsolicited messages like that.
‘But I think that while everybody is adhering to the rules and maintaining that social distancing, that will help… But I am not aware of such messages.’
Annoyed, Kate ranted: ‘You wonder whether it’s spreading an unnecessary fear, which doesn’t help in the long run,’ while her co-host Ben Shephard, 46, added: ‘There certainly seems to have been a surge in those messages.’
Last week, the Smooth presenter shared her heartache about not being able to visit her husband due to coronavirus restrictions.
She said to her co-host Ben: ‘Well, I haven’t been able to see him, Ben. I haven’t seen him since Christmas, which of course means he’s back into a situation where he’s looking at strangers in masks…
‘It doesn’t help in the long run’: When Dr Amir said he had not been aware of such a messaging service, Kate said: ‘You wonder whether it’s spreading an unnecessary fear’
‘And I think that’s the situation for everybody, they’ve got somebody in the hospital at the moment, it’s not unique. It’s tough…
‘It’s also the same for people in care homes. And when you’re someone like him who is dealing with a consciousness problem and trying to emerge, I can’t help but fear it’s not helpful.’
While Derek no longer has coronavirus, the disease has left him suffering from multiple health conditions including diabetes and holes in his heart and lungs.
During one of her darkest moments Kate was told her husband may ‘never come out of a coma’ amid his ongoing battle.
Derek has regained minimal consciousness from his medically induced coma and while he has not been speaking, he heartbreakingly mouthed the word ‘pain’ in October last year.
Family: Reflecting on her last hospital visit with their two children Darcey, 14 and William, 11 in December, Kate said the reunion was ‘heightened with emotion but still fantastic’
In September, Derek, passed the grim milestone of becoming the longest patient battling coronavirus in hospital in the UK, with doctors telling Kate that Derek’s infection was the ‘highest they had seen in a patient who had lived’.
Reflecting on her last hospital visit with their two children Darcey, 14 and William, 11 in December, Kate admitted the family reunion was ‘heightened with emotion’ because they saw how Derek had been ravaged by the virus.
‘It was very heightened with emotion, because he’s very changed,’ she told viewers.
‘So all the routines that we’d normally do, it was one of those moments that it was so wonderful but also it amplified how sad everything was.
‘And how different it is. But it was still fantastic, and we’re very grateful to have had that opportunity.’
