Two nurses thanked by Boris Johnson for saving his life are hailed by family – and president

A nurse praised by the Prime Minister for her care has been “blown away” by the recognition, her brother said.

Boris Johnson on Easter Sunday publicly thanked two medics who had looked after him, particularly “two nurses who stood by my bedside for 48 hours when things could have gone either way”.

Mr Johnson said at Chequers that the “NHS has saved my life, no question” – he spent seven nights in St Thomas’, Waterloo, after contracting the coronavirus and was discharged on Sunday.

One of the nurses mentioned by Mr Johnson, Jenny from Invercargill on New Zealand’s South Island, has been identified as Jenny McGee.

Her brother Rob said the family had spoken with Ms McGee just as she was “about to head off to do another night shift”.

He told the New Zealand Herald: “We are all very proud of Jen, not just in the support she gave Boris – but what she has been doing helping everyday people.

“Whilst she is blown away by Boris’s recognition, she is just really pleased to see the public recognition for the amazing work the NHS is doing – that made her really proud.”

Ms McGee’s parents told Television New Zealand they are “exceptionally proud”.

They said she treated Mr Johnson like any other patient.

They knew Mr Johnson was in the hospital as “it was all over the news”.

“But our daughter’s very professional so we don’t ask things or she doesn’t spill things. It really wasn’t until he was out of intensive care until she actually told us,” her mother Caroline told TVNZ.

“Over the years she has always told us that her job is one-on-one nursing with very critically ill people and that means she’s there all the time for 12 hours.

“So once we’d heard that Boris Johnson had gone into intensive care it was obvious that at some stage Jenny would possibly run into him and be giving him the same level of care that she would have given anybody else the week before or next week and we’re really proud of her.”

“She said she had just had a most surreal time in her life, something she will never forget. And that she had been taking care of Boris.

“It makes us feel exceptionally proud, obviously.

“But she has told us these things over the years and it doesn’t matter what patient she’s looking after, this is what she does and I just find it incredible that she, any nurses, can do this for 12 hours.

“Sit and watch a patient, and twiddle away with all the different knobs to keep their patients alive. It’s absolutely amazing.”

A former patient of hers at the hospital in 2017, David Cotton. said: “She would not have taken any truck from him. She would have told him what she expected from him and how she wanted him to behave. She’s tremendously uplifting, but she’s got authority. You feel you are in wonderfully safe hands. I think the Prime Minister should give her some kind of medal. For the work she does and her colleagues – they’re first class.

“She has a fabulous, vivacious personality – a tremendous sense of humour, but at the same time 100 per cent professional and thoroughly dedicated.

“It is a very intense atmosphere in intensive care. They are on it all the time. She was across maybe 12 or 13 patients [when she treated me], needing all sorts of different care. A marvellous, marvellous personality.”