Patient Giovanni becomes St Vincent’s volunteer JP in a ‘weekly victory lap’

Volunteers are the heartbeat of St Vincent’s Private Hospitals in Queensland, coming from a wide variety of backgrounds with an incredible array of skills and life experiences and with a shared common good to help the community.

You’d be surprised how often St Vincent’s patients and their families decide to give back based on their positive experiences with the hospital and become volunteers for the organisation.

Giovanni Porta ticks all of these boxes, with both he and wife Trish having been patients in St Vincent’s Private Hospital Northside’s oncology ward. Incredibly, both survived what were initial grim prognoses, with their separate cancer diagnoses coming a decade apart and both undergoing lifesaving treatment at St Vincent’s Northside.

After completing his cancer treatment, lawyer Giovanni decided to ‘give back’ and become a volunteer JP (Justice of the Peace) at St Vincent’s. Every Wednesday morning, he sets up his portable table with pen and stamp at the ready.

“I call it my ‘weekly victory lap’ where I come back to the place where I was diagnosed with a rare form of deadly blood cancer, and I feel like I get to celebrate life by helping other people and by using my professional skills,” says Giovanni.

The free JP service, in the hospital foyer, started when Giovanni was undergoing his gruelling 120-day oncology treatment after being diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukaemia (APML), which less than 100 Australians are diagnosed with every year.

It was in May 2023, when Giovanni and Trish Porta, aged in their 60s, were in the final throes of packing their suitcase for the ‘trip of a lifetime’ to Europe.

Lingering symptoms

Three days before their flight, Giovanni finally succumbed to Trish’s concerns about some lingering symptoms and went to see his GP to get blood tests and hopefully receive some answers to that persistent flu-like virus which he couldn’t shake!

“It seemed like I had a virus or flu for over 12 months leading into 2023 and I just thought the blood tests might show that my immune system was a bit out of whack – but I was shocked when the results and the diagnosis came back,” says Giovanni.

That diagnosis put him in selective, albeit unwanted company with the rare blood cancer.

In most cases, the causes of APML remain largely unknown but it is thought to result from damage to one or more of the genes that normally control blood cell development. Doctors believe APML patients don’t inherit the genetic mutation (change) and rather, for some reason it just happens randomly to people often aged in their 30s and older.

For Giovanni – a healthy Brisbane lawyer, songwriter and singer (and drummer in his own band), former teacher, father, grandfather and now volunteer at St Vincent’s Private Hospital Northside – it meant the cancellation of the overseas holiday and an immediate and gruelling oncology treatment under the expert supervision of medical oncologist Dr Raluca Flesser.

He stayed in St Vincent’s Private Hospital for four weeks to undergo intensive chemotherapy treatment five-days a week, and had a total of 120 days of oncology treatment.

Giovanni’s hospitalisation for treatment was precautionary as patients with APML are at a risk of side effects resulting from clotting and bleeding problems with the risks at their greatest during the first two to four weeks of treatment.

Giovanni found himself “in the same chair, in the same oncology ward” at St Vincent’s Private Hospital Northside as his wife Trish who underwent chemotherapy 10 years earlier for what doctors told her was ‘inoperable stomach cancer’.

“Life takes some funny turns sometimes and to find that I was treading the same perilous health journey a decade after my wife was pretty extraordinary,” says Giovanni.

“Thankfully Trish and I both survived the battle with cancer and we’re both in pretty good health now. It was a very challenging time for both of us when we were undergoing treatment, but I’m a man of faith and prayer which certainly helped me through the darkest of times.”

It was while Giovanni was undergoing his oncology treatment that he happened to mention to a staff member that he had his own suburban law firm, Porta Lawyers, since 2000 – and someone asked him to witness a legal document while he was ‘sitting in his chemo chair’.

“I was happy to do it. I wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry. Word then seemed to get around that I could do JP work and I started to get regular requests to witness documents while in the ward,” he says.

“When I eventually finished my oncology treatment, I agreed to do it more regularly hoping that it might help lots of St Vincent’s patients, visitors and staff. So I set up once a week as a free, visiting Justice of the Peace.

“I don’t give advice as a lawyer per se, but I help a wide array of people with legal documents that might need to be witnessed and organised – and if I help one person on my volunteer day, that’s a good day.”

Generous volunteers

St Vincent’s Volunteer Coordinator Sharyn Smith says the Northside and Kangaroo Point hospitals are blessed with a truly generous and dedicated group of volunteers who have varied and diverse backgrounds and a broad array of knowledge and life skills.

“No two patients at our hospitals are the same and neither are our volunteers. So we feel like that’s important to have a wide skill set with our volunteers and a great benefit when it comes to looking after the different needs and different situations of everyone who comes through the doors of our hospitals on a daily basis,” says Sharyn.

“Our volunteers have good people skills and they’re genuinely interested in connecting to the patients and hearing their stories, if they wish to share it. Our volunteers get inspired by them so it’s a positive outcome for everyone.

“They welcome patients and visitors to our hospital, help people with directions, assist with clerical support and donate time to support other areas when needed as well.”

St Vincent’s Hospital volunteers perform a number of important roles, including:

• Guiding patients and escorting visitors around the hospital
• Arranging and placing flowers in patient rooms
• Providing support to renal and chemotherapy patients

Oh, and in the case of Giovanni, providing a free weekly Justice of the Peace service!

St Vincent’s Health Australia is a CHA Member