Colchester Advanced Veterinary Practice Vets4Pets

Don Crawford is from Cape Town (RSA) and grew up on the island of Mauritius. He attended Somerset College for high school and then went on to do his veterinary studies in Pretoria at Onderstepoort. He worked in the Cape Town at a welfare called PDSA during 2016.

Don has a very keen interest in Surgery and has completed both the General small animal surgery as well as the Advanced orthopaedic Small animal surgery certificates.

He will never say no to a spontaneous trip away travelling! Otherwise he is a sport fanatic and especially loves his rugby!

Bianca graduated in 2019 from Onderstepoort, South Africa. She spent a year working at a welfare centre in Cape Town where her interest for surgery grew.

In 2021 Bianca joined Vets4Pets Colchester and is excited to be part of such a big wonderful team. In her downtime she enjoys being active, planning adventures and watching Netflix. 

Ryan is from a town called Benoni, 40km east of Johannesburg, South Africa. He qualified from the University of Pretoria (Onderstepoort) in 2019 and recently moved over to the UK after doing a year's work of welfare in South Africa.

Ryan has wanted to be a vet since he was a young boy. He has a keen interest in surgery and is currently working towards his small animal surgery certificate. He also has a soft spot for Staffies!

In his spare time, you can find Ryan playing or watching sport- rugby, football, Moto GP and cricket. He also enjoys travelling and has a keen interest in tropical fish.

Stacy grew up in a town called Edenvale, just outside Johannesburg, in South Africa and graduated from the University of Pretoria with distinction in 2019. She spent 2020 completing her compulsory community service year at the PDSA in George, South Africa. 

Although she loves South Africa dearly, she always dreamt of coming to live and work in the UK and was fortunate enough to meet her partner, who is also a vet and find out he had the same goal. They made the big move in January 2021 and Stacy has enjoyed meeting all the wonderful clients and their gorgeous pets. Stacy has a keen interest in Ophthalmology and will soon commence her ophthalmology certificate studies.

When she is not busy looking after her patients she enjoys traveling, socialising, baking and keeping active- especially hiking. 

Johan is from Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. He graduated from the University of Pretoria at the end of 2019 and in 2021 joined the Vets4Pets Colchester team.

Johan has a real soft spot for labradors. However, he has a passion for the small and furry animals and is excited to complete his exotic certificate at the end of 2022. This will add a new dimension to the practice.

Johan enjoys a multitude of sports and spending time in the ocean doing scuba, snorkeling or riding the waves on a body board. When he isn't busy at work or on the sport fields, Johan enjoys bird watching and gardening. 

Caitlin grew up in East London, a small coastal town on the Southeastern border of South Africa. From a young girl, she always dreamed of pursuing a career in which she could work with and help animals on a daily basis. This dream became a reality when she was accepted into vet school in Onderstepoort, South Africa. She qualified in 2019, whereafter she practiced in a rural community in the Eastern Cape.

When the opportunity arose to broaden her horizons and move to England, she snatched at that chance and moved to Colchester at the beginning of 2021 with her partner, Dr. Damon Knoop (also a veterinary surgeon at Vets4Pets). She has a soft spot for welfare work and has 3 rescue animals (Rey, Kylo and Nixi). She is currently completing a certificate in emergency medicine, surgery and critical care. She is passionate about the adventure that awaits each day at Vets4Pets Colchester clinic, and looks forward to meeting the community and their precious furry friends.

Damon grew up in a small town in South Africa called Benoni. Damon has had a love for animals all his life and pursued a career in veterinary science after job shadowing at his local vet practice for a number of months.

He qualified from the University of Pretoria in 2019, completed a year of work in a small rural town in 2020 and joined the Vets4Pets Colchester team in 2021. Damon enjoys working up cases and diagnostic imaging and is currently completing a post graduate certificate in small animal medicine.

In his spare time, Damon enjoys watching rugby or football. He is also trying (with great difficulty) to improve his golf game. His favorite dog breed is a British bulldog.

Fladia is from Johannesburg, South Africa, and qualified as a veterinarian at the beginning of 2021. She completed her community service year in Nelspruit and was fortunate enough to work with a multitude of wildlife and small animal species.

She has a passion for primates, their rehabilitation and care, as well as a keen interest in all exotic species. She thoroughly enjoys working with small animals and performing surgeries. Fladia looks forward to furthering her studies later this year.

Fladia’s interests include music, as well as playing the violin and saxophone, outdoor activities, and exploring the world.

Pawel graduated in 2016 from Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences in Poland. Ever since he has been practicing in UK veterinary surgeries in Dorset and Essex.

Pawel's interests involve soft tissue surgery, orthopaedics, endoscopy and endosurgery. He has enrolled in two postgraduate certificates: small animal surgery and endoscopy and endosurgery. Pawel is very ambitious and always will try to provide the best available care to your animals.

Craig grew up in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. In 2021, he qualified from the University of Pretoria (Onderstepoort), South Africa. He then performed a year of welfare work in Cape Town and decided to move to the UK in 2023.

Craig's passion to become a vet started at a young age, as his father has been a vet in his home town for many years. His current interests include surgery and diagnostic imaging. 

He loves the outdoors, fishing, photography and bird watching. When he's indoors, you can find him watching a variety of sports - his favourites being rugby, cricket, tennis, formula 1 and football.

Elli enjoys all fields of veterinary medicine but her passion lies in Internal Medicine and Diagnostic Imaging. She has a certificate of competence in Emergency Medicine and is currently pursuing a certificate in Diagnostic Imaging.

JF qualified in December 2001 from the University of Pretoria, Onderstepoot, South Africa. He moved to the UK in 2003.

In June 2006 he was thrilled by the opportunity to become the founding partner of Companion Care Vets in Colchester. Since then the surgery has gone from strength to strength, employing a great team of experienced professionals who have all contributed to its success. At work, apart from management he very much enjoys orthopaedic surgery and investing in the careers and development of his colleagues.

At home he has black and white, brother and sister rescue cats 'Batman' and 'Chloe', who make sure his sofas and carpets are scratched when he is not looking, as well as two hilarious African Grey parrots, ‘Twiet’ and ‘Jasper’ who can mimic all sorts of sounds including R2D2 at 6am! He enjoys music, cycling to work, indoor climbing and plays cricket and golf. When he is not working you can find him admiring and sampling coffee from antique espresso machines or planting all sorts on his allotment.

Sandra graduated in 2015 from ICBAS in Portugal after completing a rotating internship in Tennessee. After a few work experiences in Switzerland and England, Sandra moved permanently to the UK in 2016 where she worked for 3 years in Vets4Pets Colchester.

During this period, she completed a GP Certificate in Small Animal Ophthalmology. In 2019, she spent 4 months as a rotating intern at Southfields Veterinary Specialists and then moved on to a busy 24-hour veterinary hospital where she worked for 3 years. Half of that time was spent covering out of hours emergency shifts. After a few months working as a locum, Sandra rejoined Vets4Pets Colchester in 2023 where she is currently working towards a Postgraduate Certificate in Emergency and Critical Care.

Sandra has a keen interest in conservation and environment protection, trying to go a little bit greener every day. She is also passionate about animal rights and apparently so is her rescued cat, Bagheera, who likes to bring unharmed mice into the house for her to deal with!

It was apparent ever since she was a young girl that working with animals would end up being her passion. Jodie graduated from Writtle College with a National Certificate in Animal Care and a BTEC in Animal Management. Jodie joined our team in March 2013 and has since become a Registered Veterinary Nurse (RVN) as well as a Practice Manager. 

Jodie has a Cockapoo at home named Cassie and has a very soft spot for this particular breed. She has a strong interest in surgery and emergency critical care. 

When not at work, Jodie enjoys spending time exploring, travelling, and rain or shine you could always find her out and about on a paddle board. 

Iris joined our team in May 2016 after graduating as a Registered Veterinary Nurse in the Netherlands.

In 2020 she fulfilled her dream of achieving a certificate in emergency and critical care.

In her free time she loves to travel, swim and dance. She has a passion for wildlife rescue. Iris and her husband enjoy their busy animal household, with Davina the hairless terrier, Lilah the beagle, Hobbes the cat and Bacuna and Lukaku, the rabbits.

Brad wanted to work with animals ever since he started school. He achieved a Level 3 Diploma in Animal Management at Eastern Otley College in 2014. He started as an apprentice Veterinary Care Assistant at Companion Care Vets in 2015 whilst studying at Writtle College. He studied a worked based animal management course through which he could learn more about veterinary life.

Brad was delighted to commence his Veterinary Nursing Diploma in February 2017. He is excited and passionate about his work, and is eager to learn as much as possible about patient and client care while at Companion Care Vets.

Brad plays all kinds of sports ranging from cricket, football, bowls and table tennis. He also enjoys music, plays the saxophone and would love to go travelling in the near future.

Brad registered as a qualified veterinary nurse in February 2020.

Growing up with a range of different animals from cats, to rats, to chameleons, Louise has always been interested in animals and animal welfare.

Originally completing a degree in classical music and becoming a peripatetic music teacher, teaching for three years, Louise decided that teaching wasn't her calling and decided to retrain. Helping animals was an obvious step for her and everyone close to her agreed. This led Louise to join the Vets4Pets team as a client care advisor in September 2020. 

From a young age Laura has had a love for animals, having had dogs and guinea pigs growing up, to now having a bearded dragon named Mushu. Laura has a BSc in Animal Biology from Nottingham Trent University and is also a qualified Small Animal Hydrotherapist.

Having previously worked with us from 2016-2018 Laura is back as a Veterinary Care Assistant and has had various jobs in the animal sector ranging from running her own dog walking business to being an Animal Technician Demonstrator at West Suffolk College.

Laura has a dream of moving to Australia to work as a veterinary nurse and working with all the weird and wonderful wildlife out there!

Shannon is from Johannesburg, South Africa. She graduated as a Veterinary Nurse in South Africa at the end of 2018 and worked at a Specialist Referral Hospital in Johannesburg before moving to the UK.

Shannon joined Vets4Pets Colchester in the middle of 2021. Her main interests are surgery and is currently studying to become a Certified Rehabilitation Practitioner.

Laura qualified as vet nurse in 2008 and you won't see her during the day light hours as she has only been working nights for the last 8 years.

Outside of work she enjoys days out with her greyhound, Thunder, yearly trips to Scotland (also with Thunder), films, cheese and spending time with family and friends

After studying Anthropology at university for 2 years in Canterbury, Olivia decided upon a drastic career change and switched from studying humans to animals.
She began working as a kennel mad in Leicester in 2018, and started her diploma in small animal veterinary nursing in April 2020. Whilst working at an out of hours and referral clinic, Olivia developed a keen interest in inpatient and exotic animal care. She has a special place in her heart for cats and all things chelonian.
In her spare time, Olivia enjoys good coffee, crochet, gardening (mostly growing plants for her tortoise Bruce) and spending time with her cat, Nico.

Ronni first began her nursing career back in 2017 and qualified as an RVN in early 2021. She has a passion for medicine and providing gold standard nursing care to our hospitalised patients. Ronni began working towards a certificate in Medical Nursing in April 2021 and is keen to continue her education specialising in other areas thereafter.

At home Ronni has a Mini American Shepherd called Chester who she loves going on adventures with. In her spare time she also partakes in ariel fitness.

Alexis grew up in Cape Town, South Africa and has always had a passion for animals. She started her journey in the veterinary industry in 2018 doing hydrotherapy for small animals. She then proceeded to study a degree in Veterinary Nursing at Onderstepoort in Pretoria and qualified in 2021.

Alexis worked in an emergency 24 hour clinic in Cape Town for a year before moving to the UK in 2023. Alexis enjoys all aspects of nursing, however she has a keen interest in critical care and emergencies.

Alexis has a springer spaniel and two cats back home. In her off time she loves being out in nature exploring, birding and baking.

From a young age, Ashlee knew she wanted to work with animals, showing a keen interests in all things veterinary. Growing up with a variety of pets from dogs and cats, to bearded dragons and rodents, their welfare was always an interest.

In June 2023, Ashlee graduated from middlesex university with a first class honours degree in veterinary nursing. She went on to join the vets4pets team in July 2023, excited to explore and experience life in an advanced practice.

In her free time Ashlee can be found getting creative whilst spending time with her cats Evie and Minho.

Sophie is a newly qualified veterinary nurse who joined our team in July 2023. She graduated in June 2023 from Middlesex University with a BSc (hons) degree in Veterinary Nursing. She is keen to keep learning and enhancing the skills she has gained at university.

Sophie currently lives in Ipswich with her boyfriend, cat and dog. In her free time, she enjoys taking her dog Ruby on long walks, reading and baking.

Tayla-May joined us from Johannesburg, South Africa in January 2022. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan in 2021. Tayla-May studied psychology, communications and entrepreneurship whilst competing as an athlete for her University on the rowing team. She has competed on the international stage as a rower for a number of years. Her commitment to hard work and challenge grounded in the teamwork of a successful programme. 

Tayla-May has a vested interest and passion for helping others and working with people. She is excited to be working for Vets4Pets as a Practice Manager, whilst having the opportunity to work with colleagues and clients who love their pets as much as she loves her own border-doodle named Ollie. 

When Tayla-May is not working she’ll be out exploring new sporting activities and adventure opportunities. 

Keisha has always had an interest in animals since a young age. She particularly has a passion for wild animals and loves dogs, especially our senior patients. Keisha has a BA (HONS) in fashion and textiles but decided to pursue her passion for animals when she joined Vets4Pets in March 2020.

Keisha is a Veterinary Care Assistant and hopes to complete her training as a Veterinary Nurse in the future. Keisha enjoys visiting wildlife parks, travelling and spending time with her Miniature Daschund, Oliver.

Charlotte joined the Vets4Pets team in July 2018. In her previous employment she was a spa therapist and also worked as a reception spa manager.

Charlotte has always loved animals and grown up around family pets. At home Charlotte has a Chihuahua cross Dachshund called Bailey, who loves going on long walks with his best friend Harvey.

Charlotte loves to travel and to see new places. She also loves going on long walks, keeping fit as well as trying new things to tick off of her bucket list. 

Sue worked in the Civil Service for 23 years, before making the move to work with animals. At home Sue has a cat, a rabbit and some gold fish.

Raycheal has had a passion for working with animals since a very young age, starting with an addiction to the TV program animal hospital.

She went to college where she achieved the highest level of distinction in level three animal management with an aditional veterinary care assistant diploma. The path to her dream job to being a veterinary nurse is on track since joining the Vets4Pets Colchester team as a veterinary care assistant in September 2022. 

In her spare time she has her own selection of animals to look after. Her two dogs Cookie and Zuko, her bearded dragon Galelio Beardio and a selection of tetra fish to keep her busy.

Raymond has over ten years of experience as a veterinary care advisor in Hong Kong. From the start, Animal care has been his lifelong mission. 

In 2016, Raymond furthered his studies and he received his qualification in Animal Physiotherapy. He’d like to continue to use his knowledge for everyone’s beloved pets to receive any help they may need. 

Raymond enjoys his horse riding, reading and drawing on his days off. Aside from this, his five lovely cats are the centre of his world of course. 

Sarah studied at Otley College and achieved her first year in Animal Care. She is one of our out of hours VCA and has previously worked in two other practices an thrives whenever there is an available chance to help in surgery. 

Sarah loves all animals but particularly cats and her special boy Bobby. Aka "Crazy cat lady," Sarah, is a massive football fan and loves travelling up and down the country to watch her team, Newcastle United. Sarah is also a car fanatic and a big fan of F1.  

Emily has always loved animals so starting a job at Vets4Pets Colchester is a dream come true. She hopes to one day complete her nursing qualification through the company and maybe one day work with wildlife in South America.  

Emily spent the first half of 2023 volunteering in a vet and rescue centre in Thailand and this confirmed the job path she wanted to take. Looking after the dogs and seeing them go off to their forever home was her favourite part. 

At home, Emily has an 8 year old Hungarian Vizla and 2 cats called Nova and Luna. She loves walking, especially in the Lake District, travel and photography.