Vincent "Vinnie" Patterson is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Home and Away, played by Ryan Kwanten. He made his first on screen appearance on 14 July 1997 and departed on 1 March 2002. Development In 1999, Vinnie was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Vinnie is devastated by the diagnosis and is left terrified about his future. Kwanten told Jason Herbison of Inside Soap that the illness is probably the biggest thing that can happen to the male ego and that it would obviously affect Vinnie badly as he has a very big ego. The actor added "He is proud of his manhood and he thinks he's God's gift, so this is going to cut him down to size, so to speak." Storylines Vinnie is first seen riding a jet ski while Travis Nash (Nic Testoni) works on his boat and splashes him much to his annoyance. Vinnie lends the ski to Aaron Welles (Ritchie Gudgeon) and lands him in trouble when Travis assumes Aaron was the one speeding around. When Vinnie annoys Travis again, he falls off the ski and has to be rescued. Vinnie later dates Aaron's sister, Justine (Bree Desborough). When Travis and his wife Rebecca (Belinda Emmett) take over the caravan park and become Justine's guardians, they are not keen on Vinnie constantly being around. Vinnie and Justine become closer and after Justine asks if he can stay over, Travis and Rebecca reluctantly agree. It soon emerges Vinnie, despite having a reputation as a ladies man is still a virgin and they decide to wait. Vinnie draws Justine's ire when he flirts with Gypsy Nash (Kimberley Cooper) when she arrives in the Bay. Vinnie's father, Ralph (Alan Cinis) goes bankrupt after being exposed for tax evasion and Vinnie is forced to look for work and first tries his hand as the manager of two bands; The Chick Magnets consisting of Aaron, Joey Rainbow (Alex O'Han) and Tom Nash (Graeme Squires) and The Broken Dolls formed of Justine, Gypsy and Tiegan Brook (Sally Marrett) and tries to convince principal Donald Fisher (Norman Coburn) to let the band play at the school dance. The bands soon merge and become known as the Broken Magnets. Vinnie's next series of jobs prove ultimately more unsuccessful, Travis hires him on his boat but due to his carelessness he is fired and when he tries his hand at working for an