PAULINE CAFFERKEY, the Crossgates nurse who survived the deadly Ebola virus, has given birth to twin boys.

The 43-year-old delivered her sons last Tuesday at a maternity unit in Greater Glasgow.

And she paid tribute to NHS staff who have helped her since she first caught the virus in 2014.

Ms Cafferkey, who now lives in South Lanarkshire, said: “I would like to thank all the wonderful NHS staff who have helped me since I became ill in 2014 right through to having my babies this week.

“This shows that there is life after Ebola and there is a future for those who have encountered this disease.”

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said mother and babies were “doing well”.

The father, Robert Softley Gale, a theatre director and disability campaigner, announced the news by posting an image of the twins on Instagram.

Ms Cafferkey contracted the virus in 2014 while doing aid work in Sierra Leone during the West African Ebola epidemic.

She spent almost a month in an isolation unit after being flown home.

The nurse survived the illness and was discharged from hospital but has been readmitted on numerous occasions.

She also had to face a hearing over misconduct charges, of which she was cleared.

More than 11,000 people died as the disease took hold across the African nations between 2013 – when the outbreak was thought to have started in Guinea – and 2016, with a handful of cases treated in the UK.

Ms Cafferkey returned to Sierra Leone in 2017 to raise funds for children orphaned by Ebola.