Veterinary nurses

Head Nurse

Alice graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in June 2008 after completing a four year degree in veterinary nursing. During her training she spent time in several different veterinary practices including referral practices and here at Farthings. Alice started work at Farthings in June 2008, becoming an assessor for student nurses in 2009. Since November 2010 Alice has been the practice’s head nurse and head of training. She has an interest in anaesthesia and critical care and she completed a certificate in this in 2012. Alice has been learning British sign language since 2008 and is able to assist with veterinary consultations in sign language if required. Alice currently has two much loved guinea pigs, Cyril and Malcolm.

Deputy Head Nurse – on maternity leave

Louisa qualified as a registered veterinary nurse in 2013 and before working here she worked at Pet’s Corner in Horsham. Her favourite part of her role at Farthings is helping to run the puppy parties. She has a lovely Cavalier called Sasha and a young Cavalier X Jack Russell called Ruby. They like nothing more than going for a walk with the other nurses and their dogs.

Deputy Head Nurse and Supervisory Patient Care Assistant

Sarah has worked at Farthings since 2006, both full-time and now part-time. She is a deputy head nurse. She has three children (Marco, Luca and Mia), two guinea pigs (Buttercup and Daisy) and a naughty tortie cat called Rosie.

Deputy Head Nurse and Cat Advocate

Caron has been nursing since 2006, qualified in 2010 and joined Farthings Veterinary Group in April 2011. She has a strong interest in feline behaviour and nursing, and in 2013 completed the ISFM certificate in feline nursing. As our practice 'Cat Advocate’, Caron is working on making our surgeries more cat friendly. Away from work, Caron runs her own pet sitting service, CK Pet Care Service.

Senior Nurse

Frances qualified in 1998 while practising at the RSPCA Hospital in North London. She has worked at the Royal Veterinary College in clinical research as well as outpatient diagnostics for ophthalmology and dermatology. In 2002, Frances received her diploma in dermatology for veterinary nurses, achieving the highest marks over all. She has published a book on veterinary dermatology and has written several articles for the Veterinary Nursing Journal. Frances has also trained in the Galen massage method for animals and completed the BSAVA physiotherapy merit award. She runs our outpatient rehabilitation clinics and helps the vets set up physiotherapy programmes for patients receiving orthopaedic surgery. Currently Frances also teaches veterinary nursing at Brinsbury College.

Senior Clinical Nurse

Leannda qualified as a veterinary nurse in 2013. She has a special interest in diabetes, and runs diabetic clinics at our Horsham surgery. Leannda has two cats of her own, Oakley and Juno, who you will often see at our Billingshurst surgery.

Nicky originally joined Farthings in 1988, qualified as a veterinary nurse in 1995 and went on to become the head nurse for nine years until leaving to have her son in 2007. Nicky returned to Farthings in 2011. At home she has a cat called Slinky, a rabbit, a guinea pig and some fish. In her spare time she loves gardening.

Lily undertook her nurse training with Farthings and Plumpton College and became a fully-fledged veterinary nurse in August 2014. In her spare time she competes in show jumping competitions with her two horses, Milly and Liberty, and enjoys walking her three dogs, Dotti, Bella and Archie.

Lily joined Farthings in March 2014 and started studying veterinary nursing in January 2016, qualifying in 2019 as an RVN. She helps run our popular puppy parties. At home she has two dogs, two guinea pigs and four chickens.

Claire started as a student vet nurse at Farthings Veterinary Group in 2016. Since then she has qualified as a nurse and we are glad that she chose to stay within our team! Claire enjoys all aspects of animal care and lives in Haywards Heath with her two cats, Milo and Pebbles.

Amy started at Farthings at the end of November 2013 and is now a qualified veterinary nurse. She is particularly interested in animal behaviour and is working towards a diploma in this subject. Amy previously completed a two year course in animal welfare at Brinsbury and then worked for a year as a kennel assistant within a veterinary practice. She lives with her three dogs, all of which are Jack Russell crosses, Dora, Bella and Bobby.

Hayley came back to Farthings in 2017, having worked here for four years previously before taking some time off. She has a special interest in anaesthesia.

Arabella started working at Farthings as a kennel assistant in 2015, before beginning her student veterinary nurse training in January 2016. She qualified as an RVN in 2019. At home she has two cats, Boo-Boo and Spencer (who is very naughty). She also has a lovely rescue dog from Greece called Millie. In her spare time she likes to socialise with her family and friends, and is hoping to get back into horse riding in the near future.

Student Veterinary Nurse

Becky started working at Farthings in February 2016 as a kennel assistant and is now training as a student veterinary nurse. She has previously worked with big cats in Florida and has her own cat at home.

Student Veterinary Nurse

India started volunteering at Farthings whilst studying for her A-Levels and is now employed full-time while studying as a student veterinary nurse. Her hobbies include painting wildlife and baking which keeps the nurses and vets very happy. She has three very noisy Balinese cats called Daisy, Alfie and Otto, as well as a very old tortoise called Gilbert, a chameleon and a bearded dragon.

Student Veterinary Nurse

Holly joined Farthings Veterinary Group in the summer of 2017 and is currently in training to become a veterinary nurse. She owns a Border Collie and a handsome little hamster called George.

Student Veterinary Nurse

Sam worked at a veterinary referral centre for a year before starting at Farthings Veterinary Group in the autumn of 2018 to develop her career. She began as a Patient Care Assistant and has now progressed to Student Veterinary Nurse. Sam owns four dogs, four cats and six reptiles. She especially enjoys doing agility with her Border Collies and has an interest in canine behaviour.

Patient Care Assistant

Naomi joined Farthings in May 2019 after previously working at a different vets in Burgess Hill. She has two dogs called Dougal and Marnie and two cats called Bailey and Pepper. They always follow her around because they know she’s the one who will give in and feed them treats! She loves all things nerdy and all things animal. Naomi has plans to start training as a veterinary nurse in the future.

Patient Care Assistant

Shanice previously worked in barbering for six years but always dreamt of working in the animal industry so now has joined the team at Farthings Vets as a dedicated animal care assistant. At home she has a cat and a dog, and enjoys pet sitting for friends and family.