As a little girl, Tongan-born Dr Vanisi Prescott had two dreams – to one day be a doctor and star in a television commercial.
Often home alone after school while her single mum worked three jobs, she would turn the telly on and wonder why there were never brown faces like hers appearing on screen.
“So now to have become a GP – against all odds – and be on an actual TV show is next level,” laughs the newest host of local series The Checkup, where doctors investigate the latest medical breakthroughs and misconceptions.
But TV isn’t the only platform that’s making Vanisi’s patients tell their friends: “Did you know my doctor is a bit famous?”
With her Checkup team (from left) Shawn Gielen-Relph, Jayani Kannangara and Mataroria Lyndon.
The bubbly 36-year-old was inspired to start her own channel on social media app TikTok as a way to inspire young people. On it, she candidly shares her journey, which includes being bullied, going to school without lunch and racial prejudice.
“I started doing TikTok videos with my eldest daughter because I love dancing, it’s my happy place,” tells Vanisi, who is mum to Zephaniah, 13, Jazelle, eight, and Baker, seven. “And then she got annoyed and said, ‘Mum, can you just open up your own account, please?’
“After posting my first video, people were really interested and I thought, ‘Wow, I could really use this platform to inspire others going through similar struggles. So I’ve since posted about my career in medicine, my life… everything!
Making moves with her kids (from left) Zephaniah, Baker and Jazelle.
“I just want Pasifika youth with similar backgrounds to me to know that it’s so important to chase your dreams regardless of what people say.
“I had a bad time in high school and was told I would never get anywhere. But it motivated me to be better, and prove to myself and others that I could achieve things and go to university.”
Vanisi now boasts more than 75,000 followers and even managed to rope in former director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield to dance in a video with her last year, which quickly went viral on the popular app.
“He came to speak at a GP conference I was attending,” she recalls, “and I saw my former med school lecturer/tutor talking to him as they used to be classmates. After being introduced, she said, ‘Ashley, you have to do a TikTok with Vanisi, please!’ He was like, ‘Okay then.’
“So I quickly got my phone out and put the video up. We did one practice run. He picked up the dance quite quickly and said, ‘I’m ready.’ It was only our second take that I posted and it went viral.
“I can’t believe he agreed to do it! He had never danced on TikTok before.”
In sync with Dr Ashley Bloomfield.
Vanisi was born in the village of Tokomololo in Tonga and migrated to Auckland with her mother at the age of one. Her father stayed behind in Tonga with her older brother.
Growing up with a single parent and English as a second language, they struggled financially. She watched her mother Olivia Prescott work long hours and multiple jobs.
“Mum worked as a caregiver in rest homes and at a factory. She also had this one cleaning job where I used to go with her overnight to these offices. I remember sleeping in the corner and she’d put a blanket on me while vacuuming.
“Then we’d head home and I’d get ready for school. Seeing her work so hard always broke my heart. I’d never ask her for anything or try to wake her up because I knew she needed to rest when she could.
“One thing she taught me was to get a good profession so that I didn’t have to work as hard as she did or have to rely on anyone. She is my inspiration and the reason I am who I am today.”
With her mum Olivia. “Seeing her work so hard always broke my heart,” says Vanisi.
When Vanisi started high school in the learning assistance class, she was picked on by other students for being too “ditzy and slow”.
“At one point, I started believing all these things and my self-esteem was low – I lost confidence in myself. The only thing I could rely on was my faith in God because I had no one else I trusted at the time.
“I hated school so much, but I didn’t want to tell Mum about all the stuff happening there – including being bullied – because I knew she was already stressed out. So I would bottle it all up inside.”
The only subjects Vanisi enjoyed were chemistry and biology. Determined to make her mum proud and prove her bullies wrong, she enrolled in a Certificate in Health Science before beginning a degree.
Remembering her childhood dream of being a doctor, she went on to study medicine as a postgraduate student. But it wasn’t easy. There were multiple occasions where she had emotional breakdowns and wanted to give up.
Then, at 23, in her first year of medical school, she became pregnant with her eldest daughter.
“I sat my exams while I was seven months’ pregnant,” she tells. “Once my daughter was born, Mum devoted herself to looking after Zephaniah, which I was very grateful for.
“She was amazing and told me she would always take care of me because she wanted me to achieve the things that she didn’t have the opportunity to do. She was my driving force.
“I used to stay at the med school library every single day to study from morning to evening. Sometimes I used to take my daughter with me to lectures or tutorial classes to give Mum a break.”
Being a young female Pasifika clinician, Vanisi has also faced her fair share of prejudice. She graciously laughs off being mistaken for the hospital orderly, cleaner or a nurse.
“As a med student in the hospital, I could just tell that consultants didn’t really take me as seriously,” she reflects.
“I always felt I had to study and work harder than my European colleagues beside me. When I became a junior doctor, multiple patients would see me come in and say, ‘I’m waiting for the doctor’ and I would tell them, “I am the doctor.” Confused, they’d be like, ‘What?’
“I’ll never forget one time I went in to take a patient’s bloods and she said, ‘Are you here to pick up my menu?’ And despite saying, ‘No, I’m the doctor,’ she kept saying, ‘Take my menu, please.’ So
I did.
“I’ve been through so much in my life and built up such thick skin, it doesn’t faze me,” smiles Vanisi.
“I choose to ignore it. Because at the end of the day, it’s not a big deal who people think I am – a jobis a job and I respect all of these professions.”
She says one highlight was when mum Olivia, 59, began working as a healthcare assistant alongside her on the hospital’s oncology ward.
On her wedding day with mum Olivia.
“Mum goes to me, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you were that good as a doctor!'”
With husband Jovan Kapoki, 36, also cheering her on, Vanisi spent six years completing fellowships in both urgent care and general practice.
The busy doctor now fits filming for The Checkup around working at the Stoddard Road Medical Centre, Mount Roskill Grammar School and the occasional weekend shift at A&E clinics.
“I love that as a GP you can get to know your patients over time and build relationships with people. It’s not just a one-stop shop. I also have special interests in youth health, sexual health and cancer care, and being a GP lets me combine all of these interests.”
With husband Jovan.
For Vanisi, another important part of her role is promoting Pasifika health and incorporating her faith and Tongan values into her work.
“Health literacy is a major issue in the Pasifika community,” she says. “I wanted to get into medicine to help people and be a voice for our people. In Tonga, respect, love and care for others is important, and I treat all my patients as if they are my family.”
Many of her older patients have joined TikTok just to see their GP’s health videos and her dancing.
“Sometimes I’ve been in two minds about posting things online, but then I think, ‘Why not?’ It’s sharing positivity and also being real,” she muses.
“I’ve been asked to give talks in schools and many students have said to me afterwards, ‘I thought only rich kids could be doctors, but your family is like mine.’ It’s a big thing to open up about your life, but if it inspires other people, then that’s great.”
The Checkup screens 8pm Mondays on TVNZ 1 and streams on TVNZ+.
