He was a paramedic alongside Sam Aleni (Rene Naufahu) and worked at Shortland Street clinic, where his wife Marj (Elizabeth McRae) fronted reception.

Tom started to suffer from narcolepsy and was almost burnt the Neilson family home down when he fell asleep and knocked a blanket over a heater.

An ill Tom eventually recovered but he soon learnt Darryl had attempted to rape Kirsty (Angela Dotchin) and kicked his son out of the house.

Tom was distraught when Marj revealed she was allowing her daughter she adopted out at birth, Jane (Katherine McRae) to enter their lives.

Marj refused to pay the mystery women and Tom surprisingly returned to her life in October 1993 when he revealed he needed time off and had been living in a cult.

When Keeling opted to leave the role, producers decided to make the character go through a missing-person storyline, where he ditched his wife and children after the marriage dissolved as a result of Marj's illegitimate daughter.

[4] Producers also decided it was best the audience got closure and so Tom was written back into the soap,[2] with the explanation he had been living in a cult but returned needing a kidney transplant.