Cotswold Childhood
My parents moved from Oxford, where I was born in 1967, to Chipping Norton in the Cotswolds in England when I was 5 years old. My father, a GP, took up a position as a partner in a medical practice just off the high street of that busy country market town. My mother, a Nurse and Midwife and by training, looked after my sister and I and my other brother and sister when they arrived in 1976 and '78 respectively. From an early age, we always had dogs, rabbits, cats, hamsters and gerbils in the house. We learned to ride at a tender age.

Within months of qualifying in 1992, while still in Beeford, I was beginning to question the philosophy of conventional medicine. I could not help thinking, "Is that all there is to treat animals"? So I started looking further a field. I began training in homeopathy in 1993 at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital with the Faculty of Homeopathy After a couple of years, a new course had been established in Oxford by the Homeopathic Professionals Teaching Group (HPTG to their friends).
I moved to this as a natural progression from the Faculty course in London. This coincided with a change of direction for my career.
I moved from the conventional Yorkshire practice in Helmsley to a newly established practice near Chichester dedicated to integrating alternative and conventional therapies in a first opinion practice.

Holisticvet in Bath
Holisticvet Ltd. as the practice has now become, is based in Bath at the Apthorp Centre for Chiropractic and Holistic Therapies in Weston, near Victoria Park - click here to see a map. I see dogs and cats here. I also go out on visits, mainly to horses, but I visit pet dogs and cats at their homes too. The building is beautiful. Looking out on the well kept garden is a joy. I've established close links with the Bath Veterinary Group, a company offering excellent conventional medicine here in Bath. I'm the person who works with animals where we think a complementary approach would be best.

I travel to London to the Hyde Park Veterinary Centre once a fortnight to do a busy surgery there. In between times I see small animal patients in Bath and horses all over the country.

Southampton University has a fantastic course in behaviour and I am lucky enough to be a part-time lecturer, teaching the students about homeopathy, acupuncture, herbs and nutrition and how these alternative therapies can be used in treating behavioural problems.

George Macleod, the godfather of British veterinary homeopathy, wrote a book on equine homeopathy 30 years ago. In 2005 I was asked to edit it to bring it up to date with modern developments in equine medicine. This I have done and it was published by Rider Books in October 2005. What an honour - to have your name on the front of a book with George Macleod.

I was a consultant to the progressive small animal feed company Anglian Meat Products. They are a massive force in my crusade to educate people about the benefits of feeding raw food to dogs and cats.