our team

Robert Short
Joint Venture Partner and Veterinary Surgeon

Robert was born in England, but grew up in South Africa where he qualified as a Veterinarian at Onderstepoort in 1985. Upon graduating, he joined the South African National Defence Force where he served for almost 20 years, the last twelve in the post of Director of Animal Health. During this time he obtained a Masters Degree in Veterinary Medicine, and registered with the South African Veterinary Council as a specialist in small animal internal medicine. He also obtained an MBA with a dissertation on strategic management.
Robert joined Crayford as a Joint Venture Partner on 1 April 2004.
His particular interests lie in endocrinology and nephrology in dogs and cats, and he has a keen interest in the business side of the practice. He is married to Sheryl, who is the Practice Manager at Crayford, and has two grown children and two grandchildren, all of whom still live in South Africa.

Alicja Cicio
Joint Venture Partner and Veterinary Surgeon

Alicja graduated in 2002 from Academy of Agriculture in Lublin, Poland. After graduation, she spent six months in mixed animal practice. After this, she moved to small animal practice and worked in various veterinary hospitals in Poland.
For the last 6 years Alicja has been living in the UK and enjoying work with small animals.
She joined Companion Care Crayford in 2007 and became a Joint Venture Partner in February 2012.
In her free time, Alicja reads science fiction and fantasy books and enjoys travelling.

Sheryl Short
Practice Manager

Sheryl has been in the veterinary profession for the past 25 years. Having spent 18 years in the South African Military Health Service, Directorate Animal Health, she has spent the past seven years (since 2004) in the UK working at the Companion Care Crayford as the Practice Manager.

Agnieszka Latkowska
Veterinary Surgeon

Aga visited UK for the first time in 2006 as a veterinary student and fell in love with Britain. After graduating from University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn, Poland in 2008, she came back to UK and joined Companion Care in spring 2009.
Aga spends a lot of her time at work treating exotic animals, but she also shows particular interest in feline internal medicine and surgery.
Aga loves to volunteer for Cats Protection as a fosterer. In her free time she also enjoys period car racing, modern exhibitions and photography.

Francesco Vinaccia
Veterinary Surgeon

Francesco graduated in Italy in 2000 and worked there as a general practitioner until 2002 when he attended an internship of 1 year in a referral practice in France.
He came to the UK in 2003 and since then has been working as Vet Assistance and Senior Vet in several practices in the south of UK as a locum and as a permanent vet.
He is particularly interested in surgery, especially orthopaedics and he is keen on diagnostic imaging.
In his spare time , Francesco enjoys pool, chess and swimming.

Tomasz Nazimek
Veterinary Surgeon

Tom graduated from Academy of Agriculture in Lublin, Poland 10 years ago. He worked in Poland for 2 years and after spending some time travelling to USA, he decided to move to England.

He started work for Companion Care in 2007, first as locum vet than as full time vet. His main veterinary interests are soft tissue surgery and internal medicine. He really enjoys his work.

When Tom is not working, he likes outdoor activities like running, cycling, swimming and skiing.

Tara Haworth
Head Veterinary Nurse

Tara started working at Companion Care Crayford in February 2000 as a weekend assistant, she has subsequently qualified and is now Head Veterinary Nurse. Tara is also a Clinical Coach and is responsible for student nurse training.
In her spare time she bakes celebration cakes, that the Practice Manager very much enjoys eating!

Vicky Willson
Veterinary Nurse

Vicky started nursing at an animal hospital in 1994 and qualified in 1998. She then started work at Companion Care Crayford in 1999, since then she has had 2 children and now works part time.
Vicky has 1 dog, 2 cats and 2 guinea pigs. When not working, she loves spending time with her family.

Leanne Best
Student Veterinary Nurse

Leanne is one of two student veterinary nurses currently on placement at Companion Care Crayford.
She joined us in 2010, on her first placement block and has been coming back ever since!
She will start working as a full time nurse once she qualifies in June 2012 and is looking forward to it very much!

Karon Barrett
Veterinary Care Assistant

Karon has been working at Companion Care Crayford as a Veterinary Nurse Assistant since October 2004.
Karon is a very busy lady, always on the go. Looking after her 11 children, 7 grandchildren and her 12 cats, 5 dogs, 6 guinea pigs, 1 rabbit, 6 hamsters, 2 ferrets and 2 rats!
Karon is also well known for her chocolate addition!

Elaine Woolmer
Head Receptionist

Elaine joined Companion Care in 2008 and was recently promoted to Head Receptionist.
Previously she worked in Customer Services for the Retail Industry.

Shirley Howell
Receptionist

Holly Ede
Receptionist

Holly started work for Companion Care in June 2009. Before this she worked in various veterinary surgeries and completed her Animal Nursing Assistant qualification at Hadlow College.
She enjoys working on reception, meeting new people and being able to interact with their animals.

Catherine Warner
Receptionist

Cat started working for Companion Care in September 2011 after having worked for a charity in London for 4.5 years. Previous to that she worked with children as a special support assistant.
Cat has a number of pets at home and enjoys seeing a variety of dogs, cats and other pets that come into surgery every day.

Mandy Wheeler
Part-time Receptionist

Gill Edwards
Part-time Receptionist

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