Watching Tess Oxley shout into a megaphone in front of hundreds of other paramedics at a rally outside parliament, you wouldn't know she's terrified of public speaking.
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"I absolutely hate it, I get so nervous," the Bellambi resident said.
"But someone has to say yes."
That approach - saying yes - is how the paramedic of 13 years, who works in Campbelltown, got to be a senior delegate for the Ambulance Division of the Health Service Union (HSU) which just won its members a historic pay rise from the NSW Government.
Ms Oxley was one of three union delegates at the negotiating table with senior cabinet ministers, government officials and union bosses, while four other Illawarra paramedics were among those also stationed in Sydney during the tense negotiations this month.
"We had a side room with a bargaining committee and that was where we had the other paramedics from the Illawarra, who we'd always take every idea back to and they were sharing it with the rest of the Illawarra delegates," she said.
"Going back to that bargaining group and having them tell their stories to the other side, painting why this is important, and the effect it was having on them at home or in their jobs, that made the difference."
Ms Oxley became a paramedic in 2010, switching out of a degree in community welfare to the Ambulance NSW college because she wanted to help people in a practical way and have a job that was always changing.
She signed up to be part of the paramedics' union straightaway, but only realised how big a role it played when the NSW Government tried to change their death and disability entitlements in 2015.
"There was a big fight, the government tried to take away our death and disability coverage and that was the first time that I saw union members getting active and it was the very first time we started chalking on our ambulances," Ms Oxley said.
"I started to see the difference when union members get active and the difference that we can make in our workplace.
She also saw the difference being in a union could make in her patients lives.
"I was instrumental in playing a role in legalising abortion, which was one of my first big things, and in bringing in paid family and domestic violence leave," she said.
"Neither of those things would have been possible for me to have played a part in if I wasn't a member of my union."
To get others fired up, Ms Oxley said she started public speaking at rallies - "not something I'm comfortable doing".
"You do start to enjoy it once you get into it, but for the 10 minutes before it is pure terror, especially because a lot of these things that I'm doing I've never done before," she said.
"But - with abortion and domestic violence leave - through meeting with different politicians and different experts and coming together with a whole bunch of different health workers, social workers, police workers and all of us standing together we just continued to push and push and push and managed to get the message across," she said.
Paramedics' long campaign for better pay
This sort of sustained campaigning stood her in good stead over the past two years, when paramedics waged a long and at times fraught campaign directed at the Coalition and Labor governments.
Until last week, they were pushing for the government to recognise the huge changes in paramedics' role and responsibilities in recent years.
In the most recent industrial action, 2000 paramedics did not renew their professional registration - donning red shirts saying ambulance driver instead of their usual blue - which would have meant they were unable to attend triple-zero calls from January 1.
As this deadline approached, an increasingly exhausted-looking Health Minister Ryan Park - who paramedics credit for finally help in to get their deal through - warned this would bring the state's emergency response to the brink on New Year's Eve.
Ms Oxley admits this sustained industrial action was stressful for her and other paramedics, who got into the job to help people.
"It was really hard because we were doing it for something that we felt was so important, but we didn't want anything bad to happen," she said.
"We still wanted to turn up to work, so it was a massive relief when we got the deal done."
There's also a huge relief that paramedics can look forward to better pay in the new year.
"I've received messages from people saying, if we remained on this lower pay, 'this could have been the straw that broke the camel's back for keeping my family together' or 'we can get a car now'," she said.
"It's actually going to make real everyday difference in paramedics' lives, who've just been really scrimping and saving and had a lot of pressure on their family for a couple of years.
"They get to enjoy Christmas - it won't be in the bank account, but they get to enjoy Christmas knowing that this next year is going to be a little bit easier."
While she is now the junior vice-president of HSU NSW, and the president of the Australasian Council of Ambulance Unions, Ms Oxley is not paid for all her time doing union activities - which means she's breathing a big sigh of relief alongside her colleagues.
"I'm a members' representative, so I can't be paid by the union because people have to know that I'm always there to stand up for them and not be influenced in any way," she said.
"But I just got myself a 29 per cent pay rise, so it was worth it."