Our Staff
Biographies
- Vets
- Emergency Vets
- Nurses
Vets
Peter van Dongen
Drs (Utrecht) CertVR MRCVS
Peter qualified as a vet from the Utrecht Veterinary School, The Netherlands in March 1990. Since coming to England, Peter has worked in a mixed practice in Louth, Lincolnshire for 3 years, before joining Pennards in 1993.Peter helped to set up our Allington @ Maidstone centre.
Peter has special interests in orthopaedics, radiography and canine sports medicine. Peter oversees the running of our Hydrotherapy Centre and works closely with our Fitness and Rehab team.
In May 1995 Pete started agility and is the official British Team vet for the Agility World Championships. Pete explores the world in the name of charity from Mount Kilimanjaro to Machu Picchu.
Andy Green
BVetMed MRCVS
Andy graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in 1993. Andy's first job was in a large and busy practice in Suffolk where he worked for 2 years. He then worked in a 2 vet, small animal practice in Essex for a further 2 years, before spending 5 years at Stone Lion Veterinary Centre in Wimbledon, where he was 'head vet surgeon'.
Andrew has now been with Pennard Vets since 2004. Interests include endoscopy, medicine and surgery. His vision to become a vet came from watching a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis in the garden.
In his spare time he enjoys snowboarding, keeping fit and active, running and yoga and he holds a black belt in karate.
Sally Aylward
BVetMed (Hons) GP Cert.SAP MRCVS
Sally trained at the Royal Veterinary College in London to obtain her veterinary degree with honours. She then came to work at Pennard Veterinary Group in 1996 where she has stayed ever since. She has also obtained a further qualification in general practice (GPCertGP). Her interests are mainly in medicine and ultrasonography.
Sally took a 6 month sabbatical 3 years ago to work with a charity in Madagascar for 3 months and also obtained a ski instructor qualification. Her main interests are sport and outdoor activity related. She enjoys walking, climbing, mountaineering and kayaking, preferably in wilderness areas.
Phillip Elliott
BVSc MRCVS
Phillip graduated from Massey University, New Zealand in 1996. He then worked in mixed practice for 5 years in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. He moved to the UK in 2001, and has been at Pennard Vets since 2003, initially working as our out-of-hours emergency vet before joining the day staff in 2006.
Phillip credits 'All Creatures Great and Small' as his inspiration behind becoming a vet.
Phil is trained in Acupuncture Therapy and is offering treatments to dogs and cats at Pennards.
Interests away from the veterinary side include salsa dancing and keeping fit. At home Phillip has a daughter, who keep him busy.
Richard Everson
BSc (Hons) BVETMED MRCVS
Richard graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in 2003. He then joined a large mixed practice (20 vets) in Buckinghamshire where he worked in the small animal department before moving to Sussex. In August 2006, after a brief spell in another small animal practice, Richard joined Pennards as an out-of-hours emergency vet before moving to day vetting in 2009.
Richards special veterinary interests include emergency medicine, surgery and ophthalmology.
Richard has a mischievious terrier-spaniel cross, called Beetle (homed from local charity RAIN) and a cat called Nelly.
Richard has an allotment which keeps him busy in his time away from veterinary practice and he enjoys exploring the countryside.
Lorraine Nagy
BVM&S MRCVS
Lorraine qualified from the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, Edinburgh in July 2004. Since qualifying she has worked in small animal practice, in both a large hospital environment and in sole charge of a practice. Lorraine joined Pennards as a day vet in March 2008.
Lorraine enjoys all aspects of being a general practioner, however her main interests are in internal medicine and diagnostic imaging. In Lorraine's spare time she enjoys going to the gym, Pilates and when dancing salsa.
Lorriane has one cat, Tibi, at home, who she rescued as a kitten when he fell from a first floor window.
Emergency Vets
Roxana Irimescu
MRCVS
Roxana (“Roxy”) trained in Romania, at the University of Veterinary Medicine Timisoara and qualified as vet in June 2006. After graduation she worked in Romania as first opinion veterinary surgeon for a small animal practice and also in a local charity association for stray pets.
In 2011 she came in England. After 6 months working as intern/emergency vet surgeon at Chestergates Referral Hospital in Cheshire, she started work at Pennard Vets in November 2011. Her interests are diagnostic imaging, surgery and neurology. One of the reasons for choosing Pennard Veterinary Group was the teaminvolvement in offering high standard of patient and client care.
Roxana's hobbies are pets, gothic rock music, books and cycling.
Dana Zaharia
MRCVS
Dana trained in Romania, at the University of Veterinary Medicine and qualified as a vet in June 2002.
In 2008 she came to work in England, where she worked as an emergency veterinary surgeon for North Kent Referral, and has recently started working at Pennard Veterinary Group. Her interests are surgery and imagery, choosing to work at Pennards for the possibility of training properly for the Small Animal Surgical certificate, which she is about to begin.
Dana's hobbies are movies, cycling and foreign languages, along with music and discovering England.
Nurses
Katie Dyer
Head Nurse
BSc (Hons) RVN
Katie has always wanted to work with animals and spent many years doing work experience in my school holidays at different practices and volunteering with the RSPCA.
Katie first became aware of Pennard Veterinary Group when she started doing work experience at Allington Veterinary Centre when she was 15 years old. Katie joined Pennard Veterinary Group as an employee in 2005 after doing a four year Veterinary Nursing Degree at Bristol University and working in another small animal practice for 11 months.
Katie has been Head Nurse since 2005 and enjoy the varied work she gets to do especially surgical nursing, nurse clinics and in-patient care.
Outside of work Katie is married and she owns 5 cats, four of which were rescued from RAIN. Katie also enjoys walking and helping to train her parents new West Highland Terrier. Katie is a qualified diver and enjoy diving as much as possible. Other hobbies Katie enjoys include socialising with friends, badminton, swimming, reading, crafts, gardening and cooking.
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Laura Jeffery
RVN
Laura accidentally fell into nursing in 1999, after injury put a stop to dance training. She qualified in January 2002 whilst working at a mixed practice in Oxted and worked at Head Nurse until joining Pennards in August 2006.
She has a special interest in exotics and enjoys medical nursing and nurse clinics.
Out of work she has 4 cats, a dog, 2 rabbits and a blue-tongued skink, and enjoys salsa dancing, camping, reading and restoring classic Volkswagens with her husband.
Joanna Mackenzie
RVN
Joanna joined Pennards in 2005 as a trainee nurse and qualifed in 2008. Joanna was trained by the Pennards veterinary team during the NVQ college course.
Previous to working at Pennards, Joanna did a degree in Hospitality and Music and trained as a dog groomer, allowing her to have her own business as a mobile dog groomer. Joanna also volunteered for the RSPCA as a home checker; the person who checks the new home's suitability before re-homing animals.
Joanna finds her job as a VN extremely rewarding and enjoys all aspects of veterinary nursing. Her main interest is medical nursing and all the challenges and interests this brings. Joanna also oversees the running and stock control of all aspects of laboratory work and blood transfusion stock.
Joanna lives with her husband, 2 cats, 2 rabbits and the fish tank. In her spare time she enjoys running, nature, walking, cooking and being part of the local choral society.
Caroline Dave
RVN
Caroline has been nursing since 1997 and qualified in 2000. For the
majority of her career she worked for a large animal charty in London and
spent 3 years as their Nurse Manager overseeing a large nursing team.
Working in London ensured that Caroline gained a wide range of experience
with small animals and saw lots of interesting but sometimes distressing
cases. She enjoyed fostering some of their long-term stray patients and
was often seen on the train home with a 3-legged dog or young puppy to
give them a break from the hospital environment and hopefully speed up
their recovery.
Caroline joined Pennards in December 2011 as a part-time Veterinary Nurse
following the birth of her daughter, Asha, as she was looking to work in a
busy environnment closer to home.
Caroline does not have any animals at home as she feels she has enough to
look after with her husband and 1-year old!
Mary Griffiths
2nd year Student Nurse
Mary started at Pennards in 2007 as a work experience student; she then worked in the cattery till 2009 and returned as a trainee nurse whilst studying at the Royal Veterinary College. She is now in her second year and really enjoying the course.
Her favourite areas in the practice are medical nursing, providing nursing care to the inpatients. Outside the practice her hobbies include spending time with friends, horse riding and competing in local horse shows.
Rachel Hoyle (aka Wendy)
1st year Student Nurse
Rachael has always had an interest in animals. After leaving school she went on to study a National Diploma in Animal care. The two years spent doing the ND opened many interests and once finished, Rachael decided to undertake her degree in Animal conservation. Rachael received a first class honours degree and decided that before settling down, Rachael and her fiancé wanted to see part of the world. They spent ten months travelling and visited some amazing places including India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. Whilst in India they were lucky enough to work on a dog project working alongside the vets which inspired Rachael to train to become a veterinary nurse.
Once back home, in January 2011 Rachael Joined Pennards as a trainee vet nurse. Racheal is enjoying all aspects of the job and started the veterinary nurse course at Hadlow College, in September 2011.
Outside of work Rachael lives with her fiancé and their new kitten Mr Schmitz. Rachael enjoys all things animal related, watching films, drawing and painting and reading a good book.
Joanna Hetherington
Trainee Nurse
Joanna has recently become a member of staff at Pennard Vets, having worked at another small animal practice for around 6 months. Joanna decided to move to Pennards as it is a very large and well known practice, working to the highest standards and offering training for nurses to become qualified.
Before getting into veterinary nursing, Joanna studied for a degree in equine management, so small animal nursing wasn't the obvious choice. However, after having a life long passion for small animals as well as horses, after graduating Joanna chose to go down the small animal path.
Joanna had many part time jobs while at university, including working as a groom and assistant instructor for Sarah Williams, a professional dressage rider, and as a groom for Tim Stockdale, an international show jumper. Joanna has also had horses of her own for years of which she has broken in and sold two on, and one called Jazz who is with her for life!
Joanna is a qualified riding instructor so was also doing that freelance during my degree. Joanna is hoping to become a qualified veterinary nurse here at Pennards, and would like to do some work with wildlife in South Africa once she has qualified.
Frankie Beorby
Trainee Nurse
Biog to come...
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