The best thing about our prac­tice is that it is situated in the heart of Māngere, at the town cen­tre. I get to see the community I grew up in.

My greatest achievement is beat­ing metastatic bone cancer as a teenager. I thank God I’m still alive today. Everything else is a bonus.

Something about me that might surprise people is that I have one lung and a metal joint in my left knee from my sickness as a teen­ager. I walk with a slight limp, but I call it “Swag”, lol.

My favourite word is “sapasui” or chop suey in English.

The trait I most dislike in myself is impatience. I always want to run at 100km per hour from the get-go. However, I guess I have to learn that good things take time. Hopefully not a lot of time though.

The trait I most dislike in oth­ers is dishonesty. I guess with any relationship, trust helps make things tick along a lot better.

I like to relax with family, watching a movie with a nice feed to go with it. Yes, sapasui and taro cooked in coco­nut cream, mmmmm.

Too many ideas without the time or capacity to do them all, is what keeps me awake at night. That and our seven-year-old son, who sneaks into our bed at night and elbows me in the ribs.

My funniest moment as a GP was when I was in my training as a regis­trar up north. We had to look after a prison clinic. In my first week and about to enter a treatment room, I put my head around the curtain to see if the nurse and patient were ready to see me. The nurse saw me and growled me off, thinking I was one of the prisoners peeking through. My supervisor had to tell her I was the doctor assisting that day. After that, she was really, really nice to me. I thought that was funny.

Three things I’d like to see changed about general practice are: 1) To have access to diagnostics as specialists; 2) To have the specialty on a par with others in order to at­tract more trainees, especially more Māori and Pasifika; 3) To have fund­ing follow the patient.

My ideal dinner party guests would be Pastor Myles Munroe, Bishop TD Jakes and Jim Rohn. Good food for the body, mind and soul.

If I wasn’t doing my current job I would be working at a gym or some­thing in sports.

I’d take a boat with me if I was stranded on a desert island.

There is nothing at the top of my bucket list, life is exciting enough – everything’s a bonus