Meet the Team
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James Farrell
Managing Clinical Director
BVetMed CertSAS MRCVS RCVS Advanced PractitionerJames qualified from the Royal Veterinary College, London in 1998, gained the RCVS Certificate in Small Animal Surgery in 2007 and was listed as an RCVS Advanced Practitioner in 2015, demonstrating his abilities to date, and an ongoing commitment to further development of his skills. James gained extensive experience in trauma cases involving skin reconstruction and fracture repair during his five years at the PDSA charity before moving back into private practice. His special interests include canine cruciate ligament disease, ear surgery, and minimally invasive surgery. The latter gives clients worried about major surgery a ‘keyhole’ option without the need for full exploratory surgery.
In addition, from early on in his career, James has had a passion for teaching. He was a clinical teaching associate for the Nottingham Vet School between 2010 and 2012, supervising final year vet students’ surgery and continues to provide CPD for vets and nurses in practice. At home, James and his wife, Ruth, enjoy a busy time with their family of three children, three dogs, three cats, two tortoises.
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Jenny Walsh
Managing Clinical Director
BVSc MRCVSAfter graduating from the University of Liverpool in 2006 Jenny worked in practices in Derbyshire, Cheshire and Lancashire before joining WVG in April 2014. She enjoys the variety that working in general practice brings – never quite knowing what will be coming through the door next. In her spare time Jenny is an outdoor enthusiast and can often be found up a hill in the Peaks or the Lake District.
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Tom Foster
Managing Clinical Director
BVM BVS BVMedSci(Hons) CertAVP(SAS) MRCVSTom graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2012, and begun the first two years of his veterinary career as a small animal practitioner in a busy Nottinghamshire clinic. After a period of travelling and voluntary work at animal charities in Thailand and Indonesia, Tom began work as a locum vet in clinics across Australia and the UK. From 2016, Tom was based in a small animal practice in Lancashire, becoming their Clinical Director. More recently, Tom returned to the UK from a year as Senior Veterinary Surgeon for a practice in Bermuda, and has joined Jenny and James as Managing Clinical Director at Woodcroft.
In 2020, Tom completed an RCVS Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice, and gained his Advanced Practitioner status in Small Animal Surgery not long after.
Tom lives with his wife, Charlotte and family in the countryside and hopes to get some chickens in the future. Outside of work, Tom enjoys rugby, triathlon and travelling.
Tom lives with his wife, Charlotte in Manchester, who both look forward to moving closer to the countryside and having a dog (and maybe some chickens!). Outside of work, Tom enjoys rugby, triathlon and travelling.
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Charlie Mellor
Veterinary Surgeon
BVetMed (Hons) MRCVSCharlie graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in London. He grew up locally and joined the Woodcroft veterinary team in 2016. He enjoys all areas of small animal clinical practice, but has special interests in orthopaedics and internal medicine. In his spare time, he enjoys tiring out his bouncy Wheaten Terrier named Max, experimenting with new ingredients in the kitchen and wakeboarding
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Gabe Wertheimer
Veterinary Surgeon
BVSc MRCVSGabe graduated from the university of Bristol in 2006. He spent his first few years in mixed practice in Herefordshire and Bedford before moving to Watford to concentrate on small animal work.
Gabe joined Woodcroft Vets in July 2015. He enjoys all aspects of general practice and has a keen interest in surgery.
Gabe lives with his wife and two young children, as well as rescue cat Ivan (aka Ivan the terrible). In his spare time he enjoys football, swimming and cooking.
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Amber Morley
Veterinary Surgeon
BVM&S MRCVS Cert AVP (ECC)Amber graduated from Edinburgh University in 2005. Since then she has worked largely in small animal practice, most recently at the PDSA in Nottingham. She gained her certificate in Emergency and Critical Care in 2018 and is an RCVS Advanced Practitioner. At Woodcroft Amber is responsible for care of the hospitalised patients as well as working in the out of hours service.
Amber has 2 cats and in her spare time enjoys riding her horse, swimming and pilates.
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Gareth Whitby
Veterinary Surgeon
BvetMed (Hons) MRCSGareth graduated from the Royal Veterinary College, London in 2007 and after 2 years working in small animal practice, in the south of England, joined the practice for the first time in 2009. After 5 years with the group, Gareth moved to New Zealand to try life and work down under but feeling the pull of home he returned to rejoin Woodcroft in June 2015. He enjoys all aspects of small animal practice but particularly surgery and plans to study towards a certificate in this area. When not at work he’s usually engaged in some sport or other, enjoying kitesurfing, cycling and fishing.
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Georgia Baldwin
Veterinary Surgeon
BVetMed MRCVSGeorgia graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in London and joined the Woodcroft team in August 2018. She is interested in all aspects of small animal general practice including medicine and surgery. Outside of work Georgia enjoys travelling, running and spending time with her dog, Jess.
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Emma Priestley
Registered Veterinary Nurse
Group Head NurseEmma is the Nurse Manager for Woodcroft Veterinary Group. She joined us in 1989 and qualified as an RVN in 1996. She then became Head Nurse of our Cheadle branch in 2001 before eventually moving into the Nurse manager role for the group. In her role she supports and oversees the head nurses, nurses and apprentices in all branches.
In Emma’s spare time she enjoys looking after and riding her horse, walking her dog, going on holiday and listening to music.
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Zoe Oatway
A&E Manager
Registered Veterinary NurseZoe joined Woodcroft Veterinary Group in 1996 on a YTS scheme and qualified as an RVN in 2000. During her time at Woodcroft she has worked within all of the practices and various disciplines but moved to Councillor Lane when it opened in 2012. There she held the position of Head Nurse before moving to Woodcroft Veterinary Hospital to take on the role of A&E manager, overseeing the emergency service.
After working within the Orthopaedic department during her time at Woodcroft Vets, Zoe developed an interest in Rehabilitation and has gained qualifications in Canine Rehab and Hydrotherapy. After over 25 years in the profession Zoe loves that there is always something new to learn.
In her spare time she enjoys walking, running and caravanning with her family, including her 3 children and sausage dog Slinky!
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Casey Dillon
Registered Veterinary Nurse
Head NurseCasey started with Woodcroft straight out of school 12 years ago and has worked in all of our branches focusing mainly on Orthopaedics when at the hospital. Now she is the head nurse at our Heaton Moor branch, heading up a team of registered veterinary nurses, student nurses and trainees.
Casey has a 3 year old border terrier called Skye who is a known to be totally crazy and two beautiful children. In her spare time she enjoys keeping fit and spending time with her family in Anglesey as they love the beach!
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Louisa
Head Veterinary Nurse
RVNLouisa is a Registered Veterinary Nurse primarily based at our Offerton branch. In 2022, she was made the head nurse here. She joined Woodcroft Vets 6 years ago, completed all of her training and qualified in 2018.
Even though Louisa is primarily at our Offerton branch, she does do some days at our hospital with the referral team and on the hospital ward.
In her free time, Louisa likes to spend time with her 2 horses who she used to compete, although now she just hacks them out.
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Vicky McConville
Registered Veterinary Nurse
Head NurseVicky is our the head nurse of our Handforth Branch
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Alex Rowlands
Senior Veterinary Nurse
Senior NurseAlex joined the Woodcroft team back in 2006 as a Trainee Veterinary Nurse and then went on to qualify as a Registered Veterinary Nurse in 2014. Working in practice, Alex developed a professional interest in animal behaviour and so went on to study for a Certificate in small animal behaviour, which she completed in 2020. Since then, she has gained a qualification as a “Dog Friendly Advocate” with the Dogs Trust in 2026 and is currently working towards further qualifications in behaviour and nursing consultations.Alex enjoys working in our first opinion branches and is based at our Cheadle, Bramhall and Summerfields centres as one of the consulting nurses.Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family, playing boardgames, D&D and cosy games. -
Charlotte McNeill
Senior Registered Veterinary Nurse
RVNCharlotte joined us in 2017 as a trainee, based mostly at our Heaton Moor branch but also working at Woodcroft Veterinary Hospital and doing out-of-hours shifts in the A&E department. She qualified in 2021 and is now a Senior Registered Veterinary Nurse based at our Handforth practice. She finds her job as a Veterinary Nurse very rewarding.
She loves spending time with her family and after her day is done providing first class care for the animals at work, she likes to come home, settle down and get into a Netflix series with her husband and 2 dogs. She likes to eat out (or in!) with her favourite foods being Italian and Indian.
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Caitlin Atkinson
Registered Veterinary Nurse
Caitlin is a registered veterinary nurse (RVN) at Woodcroft Veterinary Hospital
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Eve Sanders
Trainee Veterinary Nurse
Eve is part of our nursing team at Woodcroft Veterinary Hospital.
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Sarah
Registered Veterinary Nurse
RVNSarah is one of our Registered Veterinary Nurses, based out of our Handforth practice.
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Laura Brown
Registered Veterinary Nurse
RVNLaura joined Woodcroft Veterinary Group in January 2022 as an auxiliary nurse and progressed into her nurse training 12 months later in January 2023. In March 2026 she qualified as a registered veterinary nurse (RVN). Laura works mostly at the Veterinary hospital, where she moves round the various disciplines, and she especially enjoys, working in internal medicine, cardiology, A&E and on the hospital wards. She also covers at our 1st opinion branches when needed.
In her spare time Laura loves spending time with her fox red labrador Munro and taking him on walks. She also enjoys singing, reading, photography and baking.
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Holly Brierley
Registered Veterinary Nurse
Holly is part of our nursing team at our Councillor Lane surgery.
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Rion Martin
Student Veterinary Nurse
Student Veterinary NurseRion is part of our nursing team at our Councillor Lane practice, she is currently training to be a registered veterinary nurse
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Lucie Parker
Head Receptionist
Lucie is the head receptionist at our Offerton surgery
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Sara Harrison
Head Receptionist
Sara is the head receptionist at our Summerfields surgery
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Gemma Iwanowytsch
Head Receptionist
Gemma is the Head Receptionist at our Bramhall branch.
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Danielle O’Brien
Rota Administrator / Senior Receptionist
Danielle is part of our reception team at our Councillor Lane surgery and coordinates the nursing and reception team rotas.
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Rachel Grime
Reception
Rachel is part of our reception team at our Offerton surgery
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Ellie Horton
Receptionist
Ellie is part of our reception team at our Handforth surgery.
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Tina Eadie
Reception
Tina is part of our reception team at our Heaton Moor surgery
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Tracey Kelsall
Receptionist
Tracey joined Woodcroft Vets in 2021 as a receptionist at our Summerfields practice.
She has a Jack Russell called Hollie and 2 cats. She enjoys visiting Wales for long walks with Hollie and spending time with family and friends.
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Fiona Knight
HR Manager
Assoc CIPD – Human Resources ManagerFiona has worked with Woodcroft for over 40 years, she began as a nurse and has since moved worked on reception, eventually moving on to become our Human Resources Manager.
Her role as HR Manager involves her working closely with every team at Woodcroft, looking after staff wellbeing, recruitment, hiring, and onboarding of new team members, as well as performance management and employee retention. Fiona recently completed her CIPD Level 5 in HR to enhance her skills and knowledge.
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Rebecca Henshall
Administration
Bsc(Hons) HND NVQ Office ManagerRebecca has been a long standing member of the team at Woodcroft, beginning her career here as a receptionist and gradually working to become the Office Manager.
Her role involves overseeing the day to day runnings of the administrative office, and providing support to each of our 7 branches in the Stockport area.
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Gary Knight
Maintenance
Maintenance SupervisorGary works for Woodcroft Vets as our Maintenance Supervisor – his role covers any maintenance and installation tasks that are essential to the running of a Veterinary Practice.
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Lisa Brougham
Senior Insurance Administrator
Senior Insurance AdministratorLisa is a Senior Insurance Administrator based at our Cheadle Hulme Office.
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Colette Gallagher
Administrator
Colette is one of our administrative team, looking after insurance claims and the pet health plan.
