Liz Portelli, 26, is about to be deployed to Afghanistan and thinks she has the best job in the world.
In Saturday's edition of Pink magazine she talks to Christian Peregin about how she went from being a bullied dyslexic girl from Birkirkara to becoming a medical assistant in the Royal Navy.
Being half Jamaican and half Maltese, she was the only black girl in her school and was often teased about it.
She moved to the UK to be in a place where her complexion did not stand out so much. Nine years later, she found herself stripped of her individuality completely, training for war.
Ms Portelli was a peace-loving hippie, studying holistic therapy, and thriving on doing massages and therapeutic activities to calm people down.
But when she started to pay attention to recruitment adverts of the Royal Navy she started to wonder whether she should take a radical life-defining decision and follow in the footsteps of her father.
“I always wanted to help people. And when I started researching about the Royal Navy I realised how genuine it was. They are the people who help out in natural disasters and bring supplies to the Third World. They helped abolish slavery. Yes, they’re involved in war but they are primarily a peace-keeping force,” the Birkirkara girl, 26, says, in a perfected British accent.
Ms Portelli, who is about to complete her training as a medical assistant in the Royal Navy, has been told that she will be deployed to Afghanistan – but she does not yet know exactly when.
“My personal views on war are completely different from what people would expect from someone in my situation... I have an overwhelming desire to do something good in the world.”
“It is a war climate. But I’m not going there to kill people, I’m going there to save them,” she says confidently.
Obviously Ms Portelli has not yet seen much combat, but she has lived on a ship, which is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, and her tough training has only just ended. Her favourite experience was working with paramedics.
“I once assisted in three cardiac arrests in a week, and I was the person doing CPR. It’s real, very real, especially when you’re performing CPR on someone,” she says.
“When someone’s life is in your hands it’s an incredibly humbling experience. My biggest fear is not being able to save someone.”
Read the full interview in Saturday’s edition of Pink, distributed free with The Times.