Ebola survivor William Pooley calls for Britons to ‘think what you can do to help global problem’ of the disease that has claimed thousands of lives already in Channel 4’s alternative Queen’s Speech

British Ebola survivor William Pooley has called for a global solution to the epidemic which has claimed more than 7,500 lives in this year’s Alternative Christmas Message.

The 29-year-old nurse from Suffolk became the first Briton to be evacuated from west Africa with the deadly disease and famously returned to work in Sierra Leone after making a full recovery.

He said Ebola is unlike any other disease he has ever witnessed and said thousands have died ‘lonely, miserable deaths’ without access to proper medical attention. 

Mr Pooley follows in the footsteps of more controversial choices Edward Snowden, Ali G, and Sharon Osbourne in delivering Channel Four’s answer to the Queen’s message to the nation.

In her speech later today, Queen Elizabeth will say she was ‘deeply touched’ by the ‘selflessness’ of medical staff and aid workers fighting the Ebola epidemic in her speech.

Speaking from the Connaught hospital in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, Mr Pooley said: ‘I don’t want to make you feel guilty, but I would like you to think just for a few minutes about what you could do to help.

‘This is a global problem and it will take the world to fix it. What a wonderful Christmas present that would be.’

He contracted the deadly virus six weeks after he began working with Ebola patients in west Africa and was airlifted back to the UK for treatment in August this year.

The nurse told how he developed symptoms six weeks after starting work in Kenema government hospital, Sierra Leone. 

‘I was tested and later that day I awoke to find a colleague standing over me in protective gear. He told me I’d been infected with Ebola.’

He said he was ‘extremely fortunate’ to be flown back to Britain for specialist treatment.

‘My colleagues worked night and day to get me flown back to Britain for the best available treatment at the Royal Free in London.

‘After I recovered I decided that I wanted to return to Sierra Leone and continue my work there as a nurse.’

Wearing blue scrubs, Mr Pooley said his exposure to the disease reinforced his belief that when people need help it’s important that it’s given.

‘Ebola is unlike any disease I’ve ever witnessed. Nothing can prepare you for the effect it has on the infected, on their families and on their communities. 

‘I realise I was incredibly lucky, lucky to be born in a wealthy country, lucky to be well-educated, lucky to have access to the best possible treatment for this awful disease.’

But he said thousands of thousands of people in west Africa have not had that luck and died ‘lonely, miserable deaths’ without access to proper medical attention.

‘If anything, Christmas should focus our minds on our kinship with people in all corners of the globe,’ he said.

‘We are all brothers and sisters. I’m sure we would all help a brother or sister in need.’

The Alternative Christmas Message is designed to be a counterpoint to the Queen’s speech, the theme of which is reconciliation.

Today the head of state will tell viewers: ‘I have been deeply touched this year by the selflessness of aid workers and medical volunteers who have gone abroad to help victims of conflict or of diseases like Ebola, often at great personal risk.’

Last year Edward Snowden, who was behind the leak of documents revealing mass surveillance programmes, said that children born today would grow up with no conception of privacy.

Dorothy Byrne, Channel 4’s head of news and current affairs, said Pooley’s speech is ‘a message of love and hope which inspires’.