Fats Moke is a Mongrel Mob member who's used to doing the scaring but not being scared himself. But he's the frightened one now, and his enemy is his health.
He was recently diagnosed as diabetic. It's shaken him, and he is now desperately trying to change his life.
He's an unlikely role model, but he's learning new tricks and inspiring others along the way. He's now trying to undo a lifetime of damage from bad eating.
He admits it was easy to do fish and chips but now he's getting his hands on vegetables and clean food.
The discovery was thanks to a random free check-up from Dr Tom and his partner, Melenae, who are travelling the country testing for the disease. Mr Moke was one of the many thousands they met along the way.
Dr Tom decided they wanted to be the ambulance at the top of the cliff, and in the past six months, 40 percent of the 800 tests they have carried out indicate diabetes or pre-diabetes in a cross section of society.
"We are finding the once typical image of a diabetic being a large Polynesian or Maori has changed, and now they are slim, middle-class Europeans, and it's because of what they are eating," says Melenae.
It's a man-made disaster born out of processed foods, high sugar drinks and decreasing physical activity.
Mr Moke knows it all too well as his father died when he was just seven, and even amputations could not save him. These memories have inspired change.
Fats by name is determined to no longer by Fats by nature.
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