Arriving within the UK from war-torn Eritrea on the age of 14, Mebrak Ghebrehiwet was unable to talk English and infrequently felt like an ‘outcast’.
Now, after qualifying as a nurse simply 4 years in the past, she has been hailed by the Prime Minister for her ‘heroic’ work in reworking take care of sufferers struggling consuming issues.
Miss Ghebrehiwet, 45, was awarded the highest prize on the Day by day Mail’s Well being Hero Awards final evening.
She was amongst seven finalists nominated by Mail readers for making extraordinary sacrifices to assist sufferers through the pandemic.

Mebrak Ghebrehiwet, 45, has been hailed by the Prime Minister for her ‘heroic’ work in reworking take care of sufferers struggling consuming issues
Presenting the healthcare employees with their awards at Downing Avenue, Boris Johnson mentioned: ‘You guys saved my life and you bought the entire nation again on its toes.’
The Prime Minister, who was admitted to intensive care with Covid final 12 months earlier than recovering, mentioned the previous 18 months had been ‘a really exhausting and tragic time for the nation’.
He added: ‘On behalf of the Authorities, thanks for what you’ve accomplished and congratulations to the Day by day Mail for this initiative. I’m extremely pleased with each single employee within the NHS.
‘There isn’t any doubt that these heroes saved my life, together with 1000’s of others, they usually did so at monumental private sacrifice with out hesitancy.’
The Mail’s Well being Hero Awards, sponsored by eBay, have been launched in 2013 to honour unsung heroes in healthcare.

Miss Ghebrehiwet was awarded the highest prize on the Day by day Mail’s Well being Hero Awards final evening

The mother-of-one was amongst seven finalists nominated by Mail readers for making extraordinary sacrifices to assist sufferers through the pandemic
Miss Ghebrehiwet, whose native Eritrea fought for independence from Ethiopia for many years, mentioned she was ‘completely gobsmacked and overwhelmed’ to win the highest prize and hoped it will shine a highlight on the efforts of workers working in psychological well being wards.
The mother-of-one mentioned: ‘I arrived within the UK from Eritrea on the age of 14 not talking any English.
‘I felt extraordinarily alone and I’m conscious of what it is prefer to really feel an outcast or to suppose that no person understands you.
‘There have been instances the place I actually struggled and people years made me conscious of psychological well being points.’
The nurse labored her days off all through the pandemic to make sure the specialist consuming dysfunction ward at St Ann’s Hospital in Tottenham, north London, remained open whereas many others needed to shut on account of workers shortages.
She was nominated for her heroic work in devising methods of minimising the usage of forcible restraint on sufferers.
Most are younger women with sicknesses reminiscent of anorexia.
Restraint is a final resort within the therapy of consuming issues and entails feeding sufferers by means of a plastic tube inserted by means of the nostril into their abdomen.
The method generally is a traumatic expertise.
Her considerate initiatives, reminiscent of printing off menus upfront to assist cut back sufferers’ anxiousness round meals, led to a dramatic fall in the usage of restraint strategies on the ward.
Many sufferers and their households singled out Miss Ghebrehiwet for her acts of compassion, which included spending her personal cash to purchase them books or gentle toys.
Even after ending exhausting days at work she would at all times put others first, with acts reminiscent of doing looking for susceptible neighbours through the pandemic.
Miss Ghebrehiwet, who has received a £5,000 luxurious vacation, mentioned she hoped to go to Peru together with her son Akeem, 27.
Ellie Orton OBE, chief govt of NHS Charities Collectively, mentioned: ‘The folks of the NHS are its beating coronary heart and their efforts to take care of us are one thing to be really celebrated. Every single day within the UK there are medical doctors, nurses, porters and paramedics – folks from all walks of life – working tirelessly to maintain us protected and wholesome.
‘The Well being Hero Awards are so essential as a result of they provide us an opportunity to present again to our healthcare professionals and present precisely how grateful we’re to them.
‘Each single certainly one of these finalists has modified folks’s lives – and if that does not make a hero, I do not know what does.’