BeaconVetCare have marked their practice launches in Newquay and Summercourt with a charity fundraising concert by 'The Good Old Fashioned Lover Boys' Queen tribute band.
The mini-festival was attended by more than 300 people, of all ages — from babes in prams to practice owner Colin Whiting's 78-year-old mother Kate, it was a family event through and through.
Many of the local professional teams who've been part of the design and building projects joined the party, alongside vets and nurses from practices throughout Cornwall who've worked with members of the Beacon Surgery referral team since 2007.
After an evening of food, dancing and much good cheer the bar proceeds and donations raised £2,500 for the Canmore Trust, a suicide awareness and prevention charity that supports the veterinary profession.Beacon VetCare is owned by Colin and Lizzy Whiting, both experienced vets, who moved to Cornwall in 2007 and raised their family here.
Both have been recent presidents of the Cornwall Veterinary Association, and during the pandemic they launched 'VetWings', an online support and mentoring group for veterinary students nationwide that has now spread globally with 15,000 members.
Colin said: "We have a very strong community ethic for Beacon; that's our local community of pet owners as well as our wider veterinary professional community.
"Our profession has a long history of supporting our newer generations — just as Tristan 'saw practice' with James Herriott, so we all benefit from opportunities and advice passed down, and sometime University lecture topics passed 'upwards' to our grey-haired ears too!
"Our practice centre in Summercourt will have an 'Education and Inspiration' room for classes of schoolchildren to tour, as well as night accommodation to help vet students coming to Cornwall to see our work too."
The Summercourt hub is truly State of the Art, with three operating theatres and a CT scanner to facilitate Colin's referral orthopaedic and spinal surgery caseload, with patients travelling from across the South-West for his team's expertise.
"At the very heart of all our services is our community practice," said Lizzy. "Currently there's a shortage of both vets and nurses, but without spending a single penny on recruitment we've now welcomed 30 colleagues to join Beacon, overwhelmingly leaving corporate owned competitors through word-of-mouth- because they identify strongly with our community ethos.
"We have a 'Beaconeers' pet health scheme helping make high-quality veterinary care affordable for our local clients, and a flat-fee pricing system so clients are well informed and feel in control of their pet's care.
"We're setting out to be a straight, open, practical and accessible service to our clients - we want to be the trusted veterinary practice that our clients feel confident and happy to recommend."