The stepmother of US President Barack Obama owes her life to the NHS, she has revealed.

British doctors and nurses saved Kezia Obama when she suffered chronic kidney failure seven years ago. But the 66-year-old, who lives in Bracknell, Berkshire, insisted she would not have been able to afford healthcare if she had been in America at the time.

Ms Obama told the News of the World: “If it wasn't for the NHS I wouldn't have been alive to see our |family's greatest moment — when Barack became President.” The intervention came after Republicans branded the NHS “Orwellian” amid a row over plans for US healthcare reform.