The autobiography of Dr Lance O'Sullivan, the 2014 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year, begins with a secondary school teacher in a staffroom remembering a former student.
"Whatever happened to that O'Sullivan boy?" she asks. "I suppose he's in jail now."
A friend of the O'Sullivan family overhears. "You mean Lance? Lance is at medical school," she says, to a shocked silence.
The education system had long since determined O'Sullivan was destined for failure, with a teacher once telling O'Sullivan's mother that the boy was a slow learner.
The son of a single mother who fled her violent, alcoholic husband, O'Sullivan was expelled from two secondary schools before being enrolled in Hato Petera College, the Māori Catholic boarding school. For the first time, he encountered positive male Māori role models who told him he was smart and capable.
Hato Patera College gave O'Sullivan the drive and ambition to set himself the goal of becoming a doctor, but even then it wasn't an easy path. O'Sullivan says his lack of self-belief made failure a real possibility.
Looking back, it's hard to equate the troubled youth O'Sullivan once was with the inspirational leader he has become.
In 2012, O'Sullivan and his wife, Tracy - who have seven children together - established low-cost health clinic Te Kohanga Whakaora (The Nest of Wellness) to make basic healthcare more accessible for people in the Far North.
He has also set up the Manawa Ora, Korokoro Ora (MOKO) service, which involves nurses and kaiarāha (health visitors) providing school-based health checks to about 2000 children around the region.
O'Sullivan's Kainga Ora home improvement project promotes the idea that wellness begins in safe, warm homes, while an iPad app his clinic has worked with a tech company to develop enables GPs to remotely diagnose and treat children in schools - saving families the cost of a trip to the doctor.
"I'm keen to work with people on the fringes - people who just need a bit more support to become amazing New Zealanders," says O'Sullivan.
"From a doctor's point of view, it could be a simple as telling a struggling mum that she's doing a good job. Or it could be advocating for someone who doesn't have a voice, like someone living in a cold, damp home.
"If we don't do more for people living in the fringes, the burden on them and on our society will get worse."
When O'Sullivan was announced as 2014 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year, chief judge Cameron Bennett said the GP's passion, drive and unwavering commitment to eradicating poverty-related illnesses were exactly the kind of qualities the judges looked for.
O'Sullivan says the award had enabled him to meet new people and broaden his horizons. Most of all, it had dramatically lifted the profile of the work of O'Sullivan and his team. "It has shot it into the stratosphere," he says.
"People may not know this, but I was thinking of withdrawing from the awards a couple of weeks before the ceremony because I didn't want it to be about me as a person."
"Since then, I've realised it wasn't ever about me as a person. I'm just one of many doing their best to make things better for other people and for society.
"That's why I'd encourage people to think about who they might like to nominate for the awards - because the awards are about New Zealanders celebrating the efforts of other New Zealanders."
• The 2016 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards give people the chance to nominate an individual or community organisation that makes them proud to be a Kiwi. Nominations close on 30 September 2015. To nominate someone you know in any of the award categories.To nominate someone you know in any of the award categories, visit http://nzawards.org.nz/nominate/