"It is pretty shocking to me.
"I didn’t have a particularly academic upbringing.
"I was an average child. I had spots, and braces on my teeth.
"I was a C student, really."
Today, Mrs Blakey will graduate with a PhD in medical education.
She will be only the second person to graduate from the university with the qualification.
Her thesis — titled "Cultivating student thinking and values in medical education: What teachers do, how they do it and who they are" — aimed to find out how medical teachers can encourage medical students to develop their thinking and professional values before they begin to work with patients.
The thesis, which took two years and 10 months and was submitted last October, found a teacher’s own values, such as in caring about a student, could influence whether students went on to develop their own values and thinking.
Which was pertinent to good medical practice, she said.
"If you don’t develop their thinking, say, over and above logical thinking about clinical work, students might simply turn into ‘robots’.
"So it is about encouraging students to have other kinds of thinking like reflective thinking and lateral thinking.
"A less effective practitioner would be one who stands still and doesn’t keep on developing their thinking throughout their training and after it."
She completed her PhD with the help of family and friends, who provided a "huge support system".
However, it was not easy.
"It’s a lot like parenting. If someone says it’s wonderful all the time they are probably lying because it is not.
"It’s mostly very lonely and a vast amount of work, especially when you have children and a job."
In February, Mrs Blakey was made a postdoctoral fellow by the Otago Medical School, a moment she sees as an affirmation of her "really hard work".
"What was really nice is they approached me because of my thesis.
"I’m also a postdoctoral fellow [and also a professional practice fellow in medicine], although I’m clearly not a fellow, I’m a girl," she said, laughing.
Mrs Blakey said she was many things, including a mother of three, an occasional music teacher, a former radiation therapist and the owner of 70-plus rescue animals.
"But I’m not your average anything.
"I’m not a health practitioner, I’m not a radiation therapist, I’m not a health science student."
What she hopes to be is a good teacher.
In 2015, she was awarded the Otago University Students’ Association award for tutor of the year for her work as a tutor in second and third-year medicine.
She was enjoying her new role helping students discover for themselves the more difficult parts of medical practice, such as how to stay empathetic while dealing with an emergency department waiting room full of intoxicated people on a Saturday night.
"It is blissful relief. I love coming to work, and working in the Centre of Bioethics is great."
As for the academic nature of her qualification, she thinks it could "sink in slowly".
"Seeing my business cards with ‘Dr’ on them, I just laughed out loud — that’s not me!
"I think maybe that evening [tonight] I’ll start to realise it is all over and I’ll feel quite proud of myself.
"Maybe."