Former Port Chaplain Paddy Percival, or rather Mama Paddy or Babushka, as she was known to the many eastern European sailors she helped, has won an international maritime award for her years of service to ships’ crews in Durban’s harbour.

Afraid of heights and talking to strangers, particularly men, Percival said she heard a call from God to tend to the needs of the often abused and mistreated eastern European sailors on vessels tied up in Durban’s harbour in the late 1990s.