The Scottish nurse who contracted the deadly ebola virus while volunteering in Sierra Leone has left hospital after making a full recovery and claimed Irn Bru helped her through the life-threatening illness.
Pauline Cafferkey said she was "happy to be alive" and thanked the staff of the Royal Free Hospital in London, where she had been treated in a specialist isolation unit for more than three weeks.
The 39-year-old community health visitor nurse, from Cambuslang in South Lanarkshire - who was critically ill at one stage - said "lots of music and Irn-Bru" had helped her through her recovery.
Cafferkey, who was discharged from hospital yesterday, said: "I am just happy to be alive. I still don't feel 100%, I feel quite weak, but I'm looking forward to going home."
She added: "I want to say a big thank you to the staff who treated me - they were amazing. They were always very reassuring and I knew I was in the best hands. They saved my life."
She added: "As I was beginning to recover, I listened to lots of music when I was in the HLIU (high level isolation unit) and that was a massive help. I also had lots of Irn-Bru to help me through."
Cafferkey had been volunteering with Save The Children helping to treat patients in Sierra Leone, when she caught the virus.
After flying back to the UK via Casablanca in Morocco, she was admitted to an isolation facility at the Brownlee unit in Glasgow's Gartnavel Hospital n December 29.
After a blood sample tested positive for ebola, she was transferred in a military plane to the Royal Free Hospital.
Her condition dramatically deteriorated and doctors said she was critically ill.
Speaking about her ordeal, she said for the first few days she was very well and couldn't "understand all the fuss".
But she said she was "definitely frightened" after witnessing at first-hand how the virus could progress.
"Obviously at the back of my mind I had seen what potentially could happen to me and did happen to me."
Cafferkey said she received letters and cards of support from people around the world, and is now going to take a break from aid work for a while.
She added: "I just want to go back to my normal job, my normal life and I think my family will be happy with that as well."
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