Hi, I’m Paul Wise, I’m a vet and the owner of Lawn Veterinary Centre, here in Swindon.
The pivotal moment that made me decide that I wanted to become a vet occurred when I was eleven years old. I’d been walking through some woods with my father and our English Springer Spaniel, called Bracken.
We’d been walking for about an hour and Bracken had done his usual Spaniel thing, disappeared looking for rabbits to chase.
Eventually he returned to us with a rather spectacular amount of blood pouring from his mouth so we had to rush back to the car and get him to the surgery as quickly as possible. Bracken was admitted dripped and operated on straight away. It turned out that he’d a large gash in his palate caused by him running onto a stick (an injury I’ve seen so many times since!).
I felt indebted to the vet for saving him and an immense sense of gratitude to all the staff, so I decided that I wanted to be able to do the same for other pet owners.
As a student I gained experience seeing practice in smaller surgeries (one to three vets). I enjoyed the personal nature of the care that they provided and the fact that you could get to know clients very well. I’d always wanted to run my own business as I’d watched my father run one, albeit in a different industry.
When I first qualified I worked at a four vet, three autonomous branch practice, so I was used to managing my own branch and thoroughly enjoyed it. So, in 1998, I purchased the surgery from David and Alison Babington.
Outside of the surgery I enjoy swimming, walking, off road driving, motor cycling, target shooting, scuba diving, reading, theatre, travel and eating out.
At the moment I have a cat called Mokoko who’s pretty independent, likes to take care of himself and thinks he owns the house!
Paul
