Kate Garraway says husband Derek has "wonderful little moments of reaction" as he continues Covid recovery at home

Derek Draper 53, from Chorley, was in hospital for a year after being admitted with coronavirus symptoms and being placed in a coma.

Garraway said her husband has "moments of reaction" since returning home from hospital and even noticed she was wearing a new dress.

Garraway said of the former political adviser's return to the family this month: "It's been wonderful having Derek home and there are lots of little positives.

"There are little moments of reaction and he actually said something the other day," she told viewers on Good Morning Britain.

You can watch Kate update GMB viewers on Derek's condition in our video player above.

"I walked in the other morning... and he said, 'New dress?', which was just amazing. And it was, actually!

"So I thought it was amazing on so many levels because he recognised it (and) he realised and remembered that I need a lot of flattery, so there was some emotional connection there!

"It was just a little moment and then, of course, there was nothing."

She told her co-hosts it was unclear whether the "positives" were because being at home was "genuinely helping his cognition" or "because I'm there to see the little things".

Derek's conversations are limited due to his time in a coma affecting his speech, with him only saying words.But she told viewers on Good Morning Britain that "he absolutely knew he was home" when he returned to their London home last week.

"He is responding all the time and he is aware of where he is," said Kate.

"There have been so many lovely little moments but it still feels like the start of a huge chapter ahead of us."

Derek - who attended Southlands High School in his hometown of Chorley before studying at Runshaw College in Leyland - has been taken off all machines and breathing apparatus. But he continues to receive care at the family's London home, which Garraway had specially adapted for his post-Covid recovery.

Last month, Garraway presented a Finding Derek, an ITV documentary about her husband's year-long battle with coronavirus.

In one scene, Garraway revealed that she was told by Derek's doctors that he was the most seriously ill person they had seen who had remained alive.