Juan Torres thought it would be impossible to work in an Australian hospital corridor as a doctor.
He spent five years working in medicine in his home country of Colombia but, when he moved to Australia in 2018, he could only find work as a cleaner and a carer.
He said that was OK to begin — he travelled here with his partner and fellow Colombian doctor Laura Ortiz because they wanted to improve their English.
"Then I came here and fell in love with this beautiful country," Dr Torres said.
"I just wanted to give it a try with the medical field."
He finished medical school in Colombia in 2013 and practised as general physician there for five years.
But there are a number of hurdles to jump through to become registered as a doctor in Australia.
"It's been a long journey," he said.
Dr Torres worked as a cleaner and then as a carer throughout much of the pandemic while he tried to get accreditation.
"Sometimes it's challenging to do non-medical things," he said.
"Sometimes it feels like you're going in the wrong direction."
In a low moment, he came across a video of Dinesh Palipana, an emergency department doctor at Gold Coast University Hospital, which he said inspired him to stay the course.
A helping hand
As a medical student, Dr Palipana was left a quadriplegic after a car accident and was told he would never become a doctor.
But since then he has earned a number of accolades, including 2022 Queensland Australian of the Year and Australia Day Ambassador.
Dr Torres contacted Dr Palipana via social media to ask him for support.
"A couple of years ago, I got a message in my Linkedin inbox," Dr Palipana said.
"He said he had moved to Australia and was going through ups and downs, but he was going through a down and he saw a video of me and it inspired him to keep going.
"It was a really nice thing to read because I always think if this whole journey gives someone strength, then it's all worthwhile."
The pair caught up for a coffee and Dr Torres said he wanted to continue his medical training.
"I thought, 'Man, I should do what I can to help,'" Dr Palipana said.
"Thirteen years ago I lost everything, I had a car accident, I had a spinal cord injury, and life was really hard for a period of time.
"There were times where my mum and I didn't have any money and we didn't know where we were going to live the next day.
"But what we did have through many periods was the kindness to strangers, and they helped me get through hard times.
"It taught me that when someone reaches out you should do what you can to help."
Dr Palipana organised for Dr Torres to shadow him while he worked in the emergency department.
"Juan was incredible," Dr Palipana said.
"He used to work his cleaning job throughout the day and then come and spend night shifts with me, so he'd barely sleep.
"He was so hungry and eager."
'Let's make it real'
For the past two months, Dr Torres has been working as a junior doctor at the Gold Coast University Hospital.
"I want to get a specialisation and continue to do some teaching," he said.
"I think the [key] to success in society is education, so if I can do some teaching that would be amazing."
He said Dr Palipana's guidance was invaluable.
"He's an amazing person, since [day] one he was a really supportive person and he showed me that everything can be possible," Dr Torres said.
"There's a phrase he says all the time and that's, 'Let's make it real', so it's something that's in my mind all the time.
"You cannot say no to Dinesh — when you ask him for advice he always has the right answer."
Ms Ortiz hopes to achieve the same goal as her partner and says she has passed the appropriate exams and language tests.
"Right now I'm just waiting maybe for an opportunity to get a job here in Australia," she said.
"The hardest thing is that it's a long process — you need a lot of discipline and on top of that you need some contacts, because you need observerships to get into the system, which is very hard."
