The parents of a nurse from New Zealand who treated the Prime Minister as he fought coronavirus said they are "exceptionally proud" of their daughter.
Boris Johnson, speaking after he left hospital to recuperate at Chequers, on Sunday hailed the medics who looked after him at St Thomas’ Hospital in central London.
One of the nurses, named by Mr Johnson as Jenny from Invercargill on New Zealand’s South Island, has since been identified as Jenny McGee.
Her mother Caroline McGee, speaking to Television New Zealand, said: "It makes us feel exceptionally proud obviously."
She added: “But she has told us these things over the years and it doesn’t matter what patient she is looking after, this is what she does.
“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 and things they do to keep their patients alive, it’s absolutely amazing.”
Her father, Mike McGee, also spoke of his pride.
"I think 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," he said.
“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.”
Mr Johnson, who said the “NHS has saved my life, no question” after spending seven nights in St Thomas’, was discharged at the weekend.
In his speech, the prime minister personally named the medics who had looked after him.
He spoke particularly of “two nurses who stood by my bedside for 48 hours when things could have gone either way”.
The other nurse mentioned by Mr Johnson – Luis from Portugal, near Porto – has been named as Luis Pitarma.
He has been thanked by Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
