When Sue Pedro was a little girl, her father advised her against becoming a nurse because of the long hours and little pay.As a teenager, however, she became committed to the idea of helping others.Mrs Pedro, 63, was recently named Nurse of the Year.She said the accolade came as a shock.“Just being nominated by peers is a great honour,” she said.Mrs Pedro works in the Communicable Disease Clinic. She is one of four forensic sexual assault nurses on the Island who examine and assist victims after an attack. She is also a dedicated volunteer with cancer charity PALS.She said she was 14 or 15 years old when she first decided to go into nursing.“It was what I wanted to do because it’s helping people. I probably didn’t really know why then, but it was because I enjoy people and talking to them and helping them better their lives.”Her father Raymond Hanbury-Webber and her brother Tim were both doctors. Her mother, Phyl, worked as a nurse with the Red Cross during the Second World War.“I think [I made up my mind to become a nurse] just by watching my father and I suppose it’s in my genes, isn’t it?“I remember when I was five and we moved to Ipswich in England and the surgery was right below the house. I suppose I would see the patients coming in and they always thought a lot of my father actually.”While in high school she took courses at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge; she also studied midwifery at a school in Kingston upon Thames.She arrived in Bermuda in 1971 and began work in intensive care.Mrs Pedro said she was passionate about her work spreading awareness about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) with the Department of Health’s Communicable Disease Clinic.“It’s helping to change their lifestyle and involves a lot of counselling because we see a lot of young people.“I also go to the high schools and the middle schools to educate young people of the dangers and ways to avoid getting an STD. It’s important so there’s not the spread of infections and to prevent it as much as possible.”She has been with the clinic for 14 years; before that she was a school nurse and district nurse.She said the most challenging part of her current job is getting people to change their behaviours and be safe when engaging in sexual activities.“It’s very difficult to get people to change. It takes a while,” said Mrs Pedro.But in addition to providing education and understanding, she hopes patients leave the clinic without feeling judged.The dedicated nurse is also hoping to get more young people to consider the profession, which she believes is “rewarding” and has enormous scope working in the local hospital, Government’s Health Department or in forensic nursing.As Nurse of the Year, Mrs Pedro encourages young people to consider nursing as a career.“They have to have the right personality to go into it. They need to be caring, but this is the right time. We have a shortage of nurses at the moment all over the world and in Bermuda, and there are so many areas they can go into, it’s diverse.”She said she was surprised to have been selected as 2012’s Nurse of the Year but hopes she was selected because of her work ethic and love for people.Mrs Pedro believes her parents, if still alive, would have been happy about her achievement. “I think my father would be very much so proud because I was his only daughter.“He would be very proud of it because he always helped me in my nursing as well. We used to speak about diseases and he taught me things as well. It would have made him happy.”