Veterinary surgeons

Stephen grew up on a suckler cow and sheep farm in Northern Ireland. He graduated from Glasgow University in 1999, coming to Northumberland in 2003. Stephen is interested in cattle and sheep fertility, enjoys surgery, post mortems and health planning.

Outside work he has his own sheep flock, a few heifers and three children.

Originally from an East Yorkshire farming family Andrew moved to Alnwick in 1989 via Bristol University and jobs on the Welsh border, Zambia and Gloucestershire. He joined the partnership at the merger of Hampden and Simonside Veterinary Practices in 1991. The practice continued to grow with Wooler joining then Aln Vets. Andrew was Chairman of Alnorthumbria Veterinary Practice until its sale to CVS. His work changed from that of a mixed vet to almost totally caring for farmers and their livestock.

He has a particular interest in disease prevention and fertility and has run numerous vaccine trials and studies. Andrew is a member of the British Cattle Veterinary Association, a BVD accredited advisor and a Johnes Eradication Plan advisor.

In his spare time he also runs a flock of breeding ewes.

Originally from the Scottish Borders, Pam came to see practice here at Hampden and Simonside Vets in 2003 and hasn’t left since! She graduated in 2005 and worked as a mixed vet, migrating to the Wooler practice in 2007. Since returning from maternity leave this year, Pam now does mainly farm work on a part-time basis. Being married to a beef and sheep farmer in Wooler means she probably won’t be moving far. Pam is also involved in organising most of our farm vet and farmer meetings.

She is a member of the Sheep Vet Society and the Goat Vet Society and is a BVD Accredited Advisor. Outside of work, Pam helps out on the farm, and loves endurance sports such as swimming, cycling and running and in 2011 she walked from John O’Groats to Lands’ End during her sabbatical away from the practice.

Claire qualified from Edinburgh University in 2004, and has worked for the practice ever since. Working out of the Alnwick branch, she does a mix of farm and small animal work and enjoys all aspects of mixed practice. She achieved a Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice (Cert AVP) in January 2019. She has completed a foundation course in Western Veterinary Acupuncture, which she uses to treat both small and farm animals.

Out of work, Claire enjoys running in the hills, skiing, walking her dogs, and cooking. Repeated attempts to improve her garden are thwarted by a lack of time and skill!

Steve first came to the practice, then known as Hampden & Simonside in 1995 as an Edinburgh student and now concentrates on farm work at the Wooler branch. His main veterinary interests are in herd and flock health and productivity. He has a special interest in bull and ram fertility, spending a lot of his time evaluating bulls and tups for fertility before the breeding season. Steve holds a European Certificate in Beef Cattle Production and is a member of the British Cattle Veterinary Association.

Steve and his wife Fiona, who also works as a vet, have two children. Outside of work he competes in triathlon and has a passion for windsurfing, kitesurfing and surfing.

Anna graduated in 2013 from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain), but her first job was as a mixed vet in Co. Donegal, Ireland. Six months later, she moved to Scotland to complete a two-year farm animal internship and Master’s Degree at Glasgow Vet School. In October 2017, she joined the Alnorthumbria team and has always been based at our Rothbury branch.

Anna enjoys all aspects of farm practice but has a particular interest in BVD, herd and flock health planning and benchmarking. She is also responsible for pig Red Tractor and Real Welfare visits at our practice and looks after one of our clients’ deer units. She is a member of both the Pig Veterinary Society and the British Deer Veterinary Association, and a BVD accredited advisor.

Together with Daisy, she coordinates the farm EMS at Alnorthumbria and is another of our Clinical Instructor Mentors (CIMs) to provide support and supervision to Surrey Vet School final year students completing their farm animal rotations at our practice. In 2022 she started studying towards a Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice (Cattle).

Outside work Anna loves spending time outdoors, cycling, surfing or taking photos with her camera.

Simon joined Hampden & Simonside Vets in 2002 and was previously involved in gamebird work for Hy-Fly Hatchery, Lancs. Since 2002 he has spent most of his time developing the small animal facilities at Alnwick and Morpeth but also has the main responsibility for game birds in the group.

Richard grew up in Belsay and attended school in Ponteland, before qualifying in 2008 at the University of Liverpool. He then spent seven years working in the Yorkshire Dales as a mixed practitioner, a calving season in New Zealand, and returned to Northumberland in 2016. He currently enjoys farm and small animal work, and has a Post Graduate Certificate in Advanced Small Animal Surgery.

Richard is a member of the British Cattle Veterinary Association, the British Small Animal Veterinary Association, a BVD Accredited Advisor and a BCVA accredited Johnes Veterinary Advisor. Outside of work, interests include skiing, hiking, and home brewing.

Henrietta qualified from the University of Glasgow in 2017 and works as a dedicated farm animal vet primarily at the Alnwick branch. Henrietta is interested in cattle fertility work, mastitis and sheep lameness. She’s a member of BCVA, a BVD accredited advisor, Johne’s advisor and Milk Sure training advisor. Henrietta is currently studying for her certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice in cattle.

Outside of work Henrietta enjoys walking her border terrier and competing on her horse.

Georgie qualified from the Royal Veterinary College, London in 2020. Her ambition has always been to work in farm animal practice and having spent a year in small animal practice in Oxfordshire, her motivation to work as a farm animal vet only grew stronger. She is particularly interested in sheep work but she is excited to get stuck in to all of the opportunities working on the Alnorthumbria farm team will offer.

Georgie has family in the area so grew up spending all of her holidays exploring Northumberland. In her spare time she loves hiking, showing her family flock of pedigree sheep and knitting for charity.

Daisy is originally from Bath and decided to become a vet after spending a lot of her childhood on a small holding in West Cornwall where she discovered her love for all animals great or small. She graduated in 2019 and came straight to Alnorthumbria to work in mixed practice.

In her spare time, Daisy enjoys playing netball, horse riding, and long walks with her border terrier Newt who is never far from her side.

Jonny is originally from Jarrow but spent a lot of his teenage years working on a hill farm near Hexham, which was part of the motivation for him becoming a vet. He has particular interests in surgery and reproductive health in cattle and sheep.

Outside of work Jonny enjoys running, tinkering with anything mechanical, drinking coffee and clay pigeon shooting (although slightly out of practice currently!). Jonny graduated in 2019 and joined the team at Alnorthumbria immediately as a mixed practice vet.

Rebecca joined Alnorthumbria in 2007 working as an Animal Care Assistant within the equine department, after seeing practice while studying Animal Care at Borders College. Rebecca is now part of the farm team at our Alnwick branch working as a Veterinary Technician. She is particularly excited to introduce AI to the farm services alongside Claire this year.

Rebecca enjoys walking her three dogs, gardening, baking, hunting, and playing netball for her local team.