The Queen has given a lunch at Buckingham Palace for the doctor who helped save the life of Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey.
Dr Michael Jacobs, lead consultant in infectious diseases at The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, was among eight guests invited to dine at the monarch’s London residence.
Ms Cafferkey, who is from originally from Crossgates in Fife, was treated by Dr Jacobs and his team in December after contracting the virus while working at a Save the Children treatment centre in Sierra Leone.
She fell ill again last month with meningitis caused by the deadly virus and was readmitted to the Royal Free Hospital in north-west London where she was treated with experimental drugs. She was released earlier this month after making a full recovery from Ebola.
At the time Dr Jacobs described the re-emergence of the Ebola virus to cause meningitis as “unprecedented”.
The consultant dined with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in the Palace’s 1844 Room.
Other guests at the luncheon party included the man in charge of securing the UK’s borders.
Philip Duffy is the chief operating officer of the United Kingdom Border Force and responsible for securing the UK border and controlling migration at 140 ports and airports, postal depots and rail terminals including Eurostar and Eurotunnel operations.
His invite comes in the wake of this summer’s migrant crisis in Calais. Tensions have risen further in Calais recently following the imposition of tough new security measures, including 15ft-tall, razor-topped fences and increased police patrols near the 6,000-strong migrant camp dubbed the Jungle II.
The numbers at the camp have been boosted as the crisis in Calais is part of a wider migrant surge in to Europe from countries in north Africa and the Middle East.
Border Force also plays a key role in national security and counter terrorism, with increased levels of security at the UK’s borders following the terrorist attacks in Paris.
The Queen and Philip were also joined by the designer Thomas Heatherwick, who was behind the Olympic cauldron for the 2012 London games, and a redesign of London’s famous Routemaster buses. He is also working on London’s new garden bridge across the Thames.
Other guests were Scottish Funding Council chairwoman Professor Alice Brown, rural adviser to the Country Land and Business Association Jane Harrison, Professor of Midwifery Professor Billie Hunter, Chief of Defence People Lieutenant General Andrew Gregory and Jonathan Leigh – the headmaster of the Duchess of Cambridge’s former school Marlborough College.
Since 1956, the Queen and Philip have given luncheon parties at the Palace to meet people from different walks of life.
Guests also join the Queen and the Duke for drinks beforehand and for coffee in the 18th Century Room afterwards.