Hazel is settling well into her new role within our nursing team at Westwood. She is currently training and enjoying the hands on experience of caring for all our patients. Hazel has a great interest in the behavioural side of the canine world, and in childhood days, was known as the dog walker in her community, and at local animal rescue centres. Now with two pet dogs of her own to walk Cody a Border Terrier Cross and Cara and Isla Border Collies, she also enjoys competing in dog agility classes, or as Hazel put it "my daughter competes and I try!"

Hazel Cothay
Nursing
Assistant

Hazel Cathay

Alice Kutarski
BVM&S MRCVS
Veterinary
Surgeon

Qualifying from Edinburgh in July 2011, Alice has a particular interest in dogs, cats and the equine side of veterinary work. During her final year of vet school Alice spent a month in Paphiakos, Cyprus at an animal spay/neuter charity clinic, which in her own words "was a brilliant experience and a great break from the Scottish winter!" Now back on British soil, Alice is enjoying all aspects of the varied days at the practice, which at times has her operating in the morning, and just a few hours later carrying out an equine consultation at the stables. Looking ahead, she would like to gain more experience and improve her skills in medicine and surgery. Outside of work, Alice likes baking and other hobbies include skiing, dog walking and running, the latter coming in very handy, as she has recently acquired a rescue whippet called Bertie.!

Beth Pritchard
Veterinary
Surgeon
Bsc(hons) MSc BVMedSci(hons) BVM BVS MRCVS

With a passion to fulfil her dream of becoming a vet, Beth’s journey first took her to Durham University to study for her degree in Zoology, during which she also spent time working on a game reserve in South Africa. Following this, she attended Liverpool University and achieved a masters in reproduction. With two qualifications now tucked firmly under her belt, Beth was well on the way to making her dream a reality. Further ‘hands on’ experience came next when she worked on a safari park for nine months, before attending Nottingham University from where she successfully qualified in July 2012. Joining us in January 2013, she has quickly become part of the Westwood team, and very much enjoys meeting a wide variety of people and animals. She has a particular interest in equine medicine and owns a young horse called Beany along with Bunty her pony. Other pets are ‘her buddy’ Patches a mongrel Collie cross, and two black Labradors Tilly and Messy. Outside veterinary life, Beth heads for the great outdoors where she enjoys skiing, walling, competing on her horses and mountain biking especially in the Alps.

Laura Du Pre
BVM&S MRCVS Veterinary Surgeon

To become a vet takes quite a few years of training before finally qualifying, and plenty of midnight oil is burnt by students while studying for exams. However, during this time opportunities arise to work abroad, so as to gain a diverse working experience in animal care. So before Laura qualified from Edinburgh University in 2008, she went to Italy and spent time working at a spay clinic in the city of Naples.

Shortly after her graduation she joined our team here, and with an interest in surgery, is enjoying her day-to-day work with the variety of surgical cases presented here, and is keen to improve her skills in this area of veterinary medicine. She takes great pleasure in building relationships with our clients, their pets and working with everyone at Westwood.

A pet dog was high on her wish list as a child, but busy family life only allowed for three rabbits and some goldfish. However she has now fulfilled her wish with Maya, a young black working Cocker Spaniel, who she is training as a gundog. Laura likes entertaining family and friends, photography, participating in and watching sports, music and choir singing.

Liz Askew MA VetMB MRCVSVeterinary Surgeon

“I was never allowed enough pets as a child” Liz told us, “and had to make do with Susie a Beagle, Rufus the cat, and the gerbils Jerry and Bill!” However, she does feel very lucky to have been able to follow through her childhood dream of becoming a vet, and in 1985 qualified from Cambridge University. She enjoys all aspects of her job as a Veterinary Surgeon in a first opinion practice, with a keen interest in soft tissue surgery. Liz feels the daily variety of pets with their problems makes her job enjoyable, and as all patients have their idiosyncrasies, each case is intriguing and at times a little unusual!
Liz joined us in 2007 just before the arduous foot and mouth outbreak. Past working days saw her in Leeds for three years, with the animal charity PDSA, and for the future, she looks forward to the advances in veterinary medicine and surgery that will lead to improved treatments.
Own pets are a cat called tansy, Teasel a Border Terrier and Rook the Border Collie, and both dogs join Liz when she goes fell-walking. She has travelled extensively to Europe and the more exotic destinations but with a busy family life, travel is now limited to taxi driving for her three children!

Keith Hughes BVMS MRCVS

Principal Veterinary Surgeon

Keith qualified from Edinburgh University and joined Westwood practice in 1972. He has seen many changes during his time as a Veterinary Surgeon, and has gained a great deal of experience in caring for the animal world, which is of a great benefit to our clients and their pets. He particularly enjoys his work within the equine community, but when asked what the favourite part of his job was, he replied, “pretty much all of it!”
Over the years Keith has travelled overseas to experience other countries, but it was closer to home that he came into contact with the slightly more unusual species, as when at university he worked with dolphins and a killer whale for a zoo!
Outside of work, you will find him on the golf course practicing his swing, and he enjoys horse racing too. Pets at home are two retired racehorses, Oliver and Gralmano, along with English Pointers George and Millie, and a three-legged Greyhound called Finley.

Deborah Johnson

Nursing Assistant

Deborah has been part of our team since January 1999, and says that whether she is here at the practice or assisting on visits, the unpredictability of each day is what makes her career so interesting. She is particularly keen on fulfilling the special medical care that our hospitalised patients require, and achieves great job satisfaction in helping animals to cope and recover from their illness, so as to return home fit and well again. Deborah’s attention is always captured when unusual cases arrive at the practice, and takes a great interest in how the patient is treated to solve the problems.

Deborah has a yellow Labrador Pepey, and enjoys riding and taking care of her horse Rocky, a 15.3 Irish Draught x Connemara.

Emma Brown
Animal Nursing Assistant

Canine behaviour is a great favourite with Emma, who thoroughly enjoys coordinating our Puppy Parties. She says that it’s great seeing the puppies at just a eight weeks old, and watching them mature into happy socialised dogs that actually enjoy visiting the vets! For some of our animal friends, life does not always start so well, and for a number of reasons are left without their mother’s love and attention to help them. Luckily, this is where Emma steps in as their surrogate Mum. Her last little waifs and strays to benefit from her kindness and patience, were two Border collie pups that she hand reared from only five days old! A short while after joining us in 2002, she decided to embark on studies to qualify as an Animal Nursing Assistant, which she successfully achieved in 2005.

She enjoys competing on her own horse, Spider, and other pets are Beryl an Italian Spinone who is a real character, and Eddy a Jack Russell Terrier. Emma enjoys socialising with friends, and best of all spending time with her daughter. new baby son and partner John

Julie

Bradley-Wilson RVN

Veterinary Nurse

As a child, Julie’s kind and healing hands for injured wildlife, pointed her in the direction of a career involving the care of animals. She began her training to become a Veterinary Nurse, in northeast England in 1997 and after attending Myerscough College, Preston, happily qualified in May 2001. Just over a year later she came to Westwood, and is now responsible for the day-to-day running of Garforth surgery, also working at our Boston Spa branch when she is on out of hours duty.

Julie really values her job as a Veterinary Nurse, as she finds it comes with huge amounts of job satisfaction, and along with the mix of so many different animals and ailments, life in a veterinary practice is never boring! Although it can be both emotionally and physically demanding at times, Julie always looks forward to her working days. With 13 years experience under her cap, she is now considering going back to school to study for either a medical or surgical diploma in veterinary nursing.

Her two black Labradors Bailey and Jasper (mum and son), are both gundogs as Julie and her husband are keen shooters. You’ll also find everyone in the fresh air camping and walking, but if rain halts play, then an odd pint or two at the pub is very much appreciated!

Julie Gibson
Head Receptionist
& Supplies Manager

Julie is quite a familiar face at our front desk, as she has been with us since 1994. Co-ordinating reception is quite a demanding job, as with telephones ringing, vets questions to be answered, orders to be fulfilled and pet owners to assist, at times the position requires two heads and several pairs of hands! However, as Julie’s long-term knowledge of daily surgery life plus her ability to juggle several things at once, she manages to keep our reception running smoothly and efficiently.
Initially she was an equine nurse, living down south in Berkshire, but relocated to our area following the marriage to her husband Dale who also has a keen interest in horses, as he is a retired jockey. Although Julie has no pets of her own, she is a great supporter of ILPH and the Retired Greyhound Trust. In her spare time she enjoys walking, socialising with friends and horse racing…that is of course if she is not too busy running the full-time cab service for her sports mad son George!

Kay Scarlett Office Manager

A busy practice needs someone who knows where everything is kept and what is going on at any given moment. Since 1983 this is where we have been very lucky, as Kay is the invaluable ‘mum’ of Westwood. She ensures that our practices run smoothly and efficiently on a daily basis. This involves wearing many ‘working hats’, from doing the wages to being personal secretary to one and all! So, although her days are pretty hectic, she is very calm, collected and really does enjoy the variety of her job.

Kay has a great concern for the welfare of animals, and supports the WSPA, IFAW and RSPB. Both of her cats are rescue animals; Jo came in after being injured from a road traffic accident, and had no owner; Charlie was found as a kitten in a cardboard box at the side of a motorway.

Also rescue is Buddy, a border collie who was very thin and nervous at first, but Kay spent a great deal of time helping him socialise. She did such a great job, that you can now see him and Kay regularly competing and winning, in Kennel Club agility competitions all over northern England. Her other dog Poppy is a young working sheepdog, and did her first show in January 2011, in fact watch out for her at Crufts!

So Kay’s life is pretty much full but on top of all the above, she also works part-time at Leeds United football Club, where she runs a bar on match days!

Samantha Broom
Nursing Assistant

Samantha is probably quite familiar to you all, as she has been working here since 1993. As a pet owner, Samantha has a great empathy with clients and their pets, and with her friendly nature, she is always ready to chat with you about any concerns you may have. In the past, she has done charity volunteer work for The National Foaling Bank, and specifically cared for an orphan foal, with the help of her own mare that had sadly lost her twin foals.

There are many rescue animals out there needing a kind, loving home and Samantha has been able to do just that when she took on Spike a Collie cross spaniel, Lola a Kelpi cross, a cat called George and Radish the rabbit. Animals play a part too in her relaxation time as she enjoys dog training and agility, plus horse riding, and on the human side…. seeing friends, walking and spending time with her family.

Sarah Grogan
Senior Nurse

Sarah first began here as a work experience student in 1986, and liked it so much that she never actually left! Prior to this, her career with animals began in her teens, with a Saturday job at a local boarding kennels, and in a pet food shop. With a variety of childhood pets - Merlin the pony, ducks, goats, hens, cats, Bassett Hound Cleo and Golden Retriever Lucy, and not forgetting the hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits. So you could say that Sarah has always been surrounded by animals, who play a very large part in her life!

Being a Veterinary Nurse is not just about the caring of sick animals. It involves many more aspects to the job, as vets require assistance, pet owners advice on preventative healthcare, theatres must be spotless, and you must be ready for immediate action in an emergency. Sarah enjoys all her nursing duties and finds the daily diversity one of her favourites.

With a keen interest in nature, she captures this on film, as one of her hobbies is photography. Others include, bird and wildlife watching, walking, archaeology, politics and history programmes. Muppet and Charlie her two cats relax at home, and her young Labrador Dizzy, had great fun on her first camping trip with the family.

Stella Ellis RVN Veterinary Nurse

From Ziggy a Khaki Campbell duck, to Zebra finches called Bubble & Squeak, Stella has always enjoyed and wanted to care for animals. She is the newest member to join our practice and since October 2010 has been enjoying every minute of ‘finding her feet’ around the surgery. Stella qualified in 2004 from Rodbaston Agricultural College Staffordshire, and continues focusing to improve her knowledge so as to not only benefit her patients, but also to assist owners in understanding the needs of their pets. She very much enjoys the one to one nursing care of patients, and finds it rewarding following cases through to see the full recovery of a pet that happily returns home to its owners again.

She has a great interest in the workings of the feline world, so it is hardly surprising that all her pets are cats that she has rescued over the years. Kitten of the bunch is 17-year-old Tiggy the tabby,, and the wise owl is Emmy at 18 years of age! Stella supports many animal charities, local rescue centres and wildlife hospitals, by involving herself in fund raising events such as sponsored walks and Christmas markets.

As Stella is new to the area and walking is one of her hobbies, she is really enjoying exploring the countryside and wildlife. At home she likes to curl up with a good book, and back in time she may well have been recruited into Robin Hoods crowd, as we’ve heard she’s pretty keen on field archery!