The brother of the Wiltshire man left critically ill after being poisoned with a nerve agent has revealed doctors feared he would not survive and said the impact of the novichok had left his sibling looking like a skeleton.

Charlie Rowley’s brother, Matthew, has told the Guardian he wiggled his brother’s toes when he visited him at Salisbury district hospital on Wednesday but could not get closer to him as he was hooked up to machines and tubes.

Matthew Rowley said his brother became tearful when they mentioned Charlie’s partner, Dawn Sturgess, who has died, and he changed the subject.

But Matthew Rowley said his brother, his only sibling, smiled when, wearing protective clothing and gloves, he first walked into his hospital room.

His comments came as it was revealed that Charlie Rowley was conscious and speaking to detectives about his ordeal.

He said: “It was quite shocking. I hardly recognised him, to tell the truth. He’s not the Charles I know. He’s awake. He’s talking, making sense, but he’s like a skeleton. He couldn’t lift his head off the pillow. We managed to have a little laugh with the nurses.

“The nurses say he’s getting stronger. It was upsetting, just seeing him in that condition. He was slurring a bit but he was trying his best. I would imagine he’s on an awful lot of drugs.”

Charlie Rowley spent days in a coma after being taken seriously ill on Saturday 30 June at his home in Amesbury, Wiltshire.

Charles Rowley. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

He is is under guard in hospital and may have information with significant implications for public safety, national security and UK relations with Russia, which has been blamed for the use of novichok on British soil.

The crucial question detectives want to ask is when and where he came across a container containing novichok. Charlie Rowley and Sturgess handled the small container, made of glass, plastic or metal, which led to them becoming ill.

Matthew Rowley said he was accompanied by a police officer during the visit to hospital and that he and his brother were not allowed to speak about what happened. Instead, they talked about the future.

“We had a good chat. We talked about his house. He’s worried about losing his house. We had a chat about old times and what will happen in the future. I said if he ever gets trouble, he can come and stay here. I told him, don’t worry, just get yourself straight.”

Matthew Rowley’s account is the first firsthand description of any of the five people who have been poisoned with novichok since the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were attacked with the nerve agent in March.

He said: “He knows why he’s in there. At the moment, I think he’s just living by the hour. There’s quite a few police officers outside his door. I had a policeman with me and he was telling me you can’t talk about that. I’m not allowed to talk about the cause and where it happened.”

He added: “I’ve never seen so many machines. There must have been six machines and he had a hell of a lot of tubes coming out of him. There were wires everywhere. He’s still in intensive care The nurse said he will be here for some time but, because he’s talking, he’s getting better; it’s a good sign. He’s still on critical but stable. But he’s compos mentis.

“I wiggled his toes a bit to make sure he was alive. I couldn’t get too close because of all the machines. They weren’t sure he was going to make it. Then, all of a sudden, he woke up.”

He said he had not seen his brother for a while, saying: “He had his life with his girlfriend.” Matthew Rowley said he had steered the conversation with his brother away from Sturgess. “I didn’t want to upset him. He was a bit tearful. I changed the subject.

“He’s got a TV. He’s watched himself on the news. He just laughed and said: ‘I’m famous now.’ He’s got a sense of humour. I wasn’t allowed to give him a newspaper in case he read some negative things that would upset him. They are trying to keep his spirits high. I gave him a DVD player and some films and some pocket money.

“He’s a very nice guy, very friendly, he’d do anything for you. He’s always had girlfriends. It’s awful, it’s difficult to believe this has happened anywhere in the world, let alone Salisbury or Amesbury. It’s the sort of thing you see in James Bond films.”

Detectives from Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command believe they may have to wait days for Charlie Rowley to regain his memory and the ability to focus on the questions he is being asked: “Officers from the investigation team have spoken briefly to Charlie and will be looking to further speak with him in the coming days, as they continue to try to establish how he and Dawn came to be contaminated with the nerve agent.”

The director of nursing at the hospital, Lorna Wilkinson, said: “He is no longer in a critical condition. His condition is now serious but stable. Our staff will continue to work hard to provide the care that Charlie needs. Charlie still has some way to go to recover but the progress we’ve seen so far gives us cause for optimism.”

Four months ago, novichok was used to try to kill Skripal and his daughter at the former spy’s Salisbury home. Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer, Neil Basu, said no forensic link between the two incidents had yet been found but added it was implausible there was no connection.

Basu, an assistant commissioner with the Metropolitan police, said on Tuesday that if it was in a container, the novichok could remain active for half a century.

Meanwhile, the government has announced extra funding, totalling more than £5m, to help south Wiltshire recover after the poisonings. The funding includes money to revive tourism and make up for income lost by local businesses as a result of the novichok attack.