Big Brother of the Year Lamumba Tucker knows first-hand the difference a mentor can make in the life of young person.

The 38-year-old found his first mentor in college and was grateful for the support.

He was determined to provide that same back-up to others and signed up with charity Big Brothers Big Sisters Bermuda more than a decade ago.

He bonded with his third “little”, Jaire Shields, over sports and now Mr Tucker will be announced as Big Brother of the Year at a special ceremony today.

Mr Tucker, of Sandys, said: “It was definitely a surprise. When they called, it was in a serious tone and I thought I might have done something wrong.

“But once I was told I was selected as Big of the Year that was one of the biggest rewards I could possibly have in life.

“It’s not even so much about the accolade than it is knowing that somebody is actually benefiting and somebody else notices that you are doing good in the community.

He added: “I don’t think there are many awards that I could have gotten that would have made me more happy.”

The manager of finance and administration at the Office of the Ombudsman had his first mentor in college and appreciated the help.

He explained that his father died when he was young and he only had one godfather as a role model.

Mr Tucker said: “It would have been nice to have someone there to mentor me and say this is why you shouldn’t do x, y, z.”

He added he was keen to join a mentoring programme when he graduated from college in 2006 and had already worked with the YouthNet programme, but felt like he could do more.

Aware that a lot of children could benefit from a mentor, he decided to sign up for BBBS.

Mr Tucker said: “Mentoring a young male, to me, was one of the big things where I could at least make a start.”

He was matched with 11-year-old Jaire, of Sandys, in July last year.

Jaire said his mother signed him up to the programme after his father moved away and he was left feeling “upset, lonely and scared”.

He wanted a “big” to spend time with and although he was nervous at first, he found it easy to talk to Mr Tucker.

Jaire said: “I felt like he understood me, my family background and my love for sports. He is the best big brother I could ask for.”

Mr Tucker described his “little” as a fun-loving boy with an amazing personality and tipped his hat to Jaire’s mother for her good work in bringing him up.

The pair meet up at weekends and play video games, go to the movies, talk about sports and “just hang out”.

Mr Tucker said: “He’s very competitive which works out really well because I’m competitive myself, especially when it comes to sports.

“Because the two of us are really big on sports, a lot of times you find that we just talk about any type of sport. We love talking banter.

“He’s really, really adamant about football. His team is Manchester City and my team is Manchester United, so that’s banter going back and forth.”

He added: “At the end of the day, you see exactly from your input how it’s helping somebody else and you’re looking at something bigger than what you want for your own family.

“You’re actually looking at how you can help in somebody else’s family. When you see the positive growth, it definitely makes you really, really happy.”