CONNECT PROFILE: From a beach in Africa to the pets of Guernsey

Thursday 09 June 2022

Born and raised in South Africa, Dr Les Van Blerk grew up surrounded by animals, but never dreamed of becoming a vet. With two years of National Service under his belt, working in a restaurant and by his own admission spending “too much time on the beach”, it wasn’t until his own horse became ill that Les began to consider a career in veterinary medicine.

“[My horse] Cyclone was really poorly. She had colic for 10 days. But I watched the vet – he never gave up – and she pulled through”, said Les.

In the latest edition of CONNECT - Express' sister publication - Les spoke to Jenny Lambert about his career and his path to Guernsey.

Credit for pictures: Jenny Lambert.

Pictured: Les' charisma and down to earth approach has helped him lead the growth of Vets4Pets in Guernsey.

His dad laughed when Les told him he wanted to be a vet. “It’s notoriously difficult. Difficult to get in, difficult to stay in, and difficult to get out. It has an academic bias and it’s very expensive.”

It also meant that Les had to go back and retake his last year at school, where he said he had originally “had no interest in academics – I played rugby”.

“Dad agreed to help me financially, but the deal was ‘if you fail once, it’s over’.” So, aged 20, Les went back to school. “I worked my butt off”, he said. He studied day and night to pass.

“I got great grades, but I didn’t get into vet school. I was gutted. So, I went off to do a BSc in pharmacy at Rhodes University. Then I got into vet school.”

Pictured: Les was born and raised in South Africa and started his career as a vet there.

After graduating, Les worked at a small practice in Cape Town before moving to a practice in Saudi Arabia, but the overseas call was strong.

“My best friend, my colleague Jono, called me one night to say ‘Les, I’ve been watching a start-up company in the UK, I think we should join them’.”

Les and Jono opened the doors to a Vets4Pets practice in Newbury in 2003 – the company’s 10th practice but the very first outside Yorkshire.

Often thought of as a UK-based franchise, Vets4Pets was actually founded in Guernsey by Peter Watson and Jeremy Camm in 2001.

“A year later, Peter approached us and said they wanted to open a flagship practice in Guernsey, and they wanted us to do it. I’d visited Guernsey before and it had stuck with me. So, we decided I’d come over and Jono would stay on at Newbury and join us later. As it turned out, it never worked out that way.

“I remember coming out to Guernsey in the early days and the office was in Peter’s basement on Doyle Road”, recalls Les. “When we first came to the island, we were labelled as ‘corporate’ but actually what people might not realise is that Vets4Pets started in Guernsey.”

Pictured: Vets4Pets has operated a practice in Guernsey for nearly 18 years.

In August 2004, Les opened the first Vets4Pets practice in Guernsey on La Grande Rue in St. Martin’s.

“It seems like yesterday, but it’s been 17 years. When we first opened, it was myself, Jenny, our Practice Manager, and a training nurse. We spent the whole day playing online bubble shooter because nothing was happening. We made £10 in turnover.”

Luckily, business soon picked up.

“We’ve grown from three to 32 people, full-time and part-time”, beams Les. “I’m so chuffed, I have to pinch myself. It’s taken 17 years to grow to where we are. I still can’t believe it. It’s been a joint effort, but it’s so rewarding.

“Guernsey has been an amazing opportunity. I always think I’m blessed to be here. You don’t get that community feel [anywhere else].”

Pictured: Les and his golden retriever, Sebastian.

Les was quickly joined by vets Christine Fleischmann, Raz Feldmesser and Vicky Babbe at La Grande Rue practice.

“Christine, Raz and Vicky have been with me for 10 years. Antje has been with us for six years. And we’re going into a new era now, with Christine taking over as Hospital Director and two new vets joining us this year.”

Alongside a growing team of practitioners, Practice Manager Jenny, Assistant manager Lyndsay and Reception Lead Julie help to make up the core team, as Les puts it.

“We have three generations, all with different outlooks but all working towards the same goal.

“My team is amazing. They do everything they can, which is all I can ask for really. Every now and then I just sit back and think ‘wow, these guys are pretty damn good’. None of my team come in and say ‘we’re going to do a bad job today.’ They come in and say ‘we’re going to do the best we possibly can’, and as long as that’s the motivation I can’t fault them.”

Pictured: "My team is amazing...every now and then I just sit back and think ‘wow, these guys are pretty damn good’."

Five years ago, Les and the team picked up and relocated to what was the original Vets4Pets support office, just behind the practice on La Grande Rue.

“We were a routine, first-opinion practice back then. It did the job, but there was nothing advanced whatsoever. It became very obvious to me that the first practice was not fit for purpose for us to practice at the level we wanted to practice at”, explains Les.

“We had all started to advance our studies. I spent a lot of time advancing my surgical skills in soft tissue and orthopaedics. Christine studied internal medicine while Raz focused on internal imaging.

“All of our vets are competent surgeons, but you have to be more than a competent surgeon to do things like spinal surgeries and hip replacement. We’re always studying. I’ve been studying for the last eight years. This is the first time I’ve had time off.”

Pictured: Les has achieved much in a career which has taken him to several continents, but he has remained humble and is always quick to praise his colleagues. 

For someone who works so hard and has achieved so much, Les is hesitant to relish in any of his achievements. The most recent of which - a certification to perform hip replacements - will mean big changes for both the practice and for Guernsey. But for Les, his greatest success is the team he has built over the years.

“What really drives the practice is the people in my team. They’re so dedicated.”

Les says they have already outgrown their new St. Martin’s site.  And their second practice – on the Bridge – has also gone through a transformation.

“What started off as a second-opinion practice has become our Wellness Centre. Its main function will ultimately be for older dogs. We have a water walker [for hydrotherapy], a spa bath, TENS machines, physiotherapy, laser therapy… even acupuncture.

“Nicky, our amazing Physiotherapist, is supported by Rhi to offer a full programme. Half the work we do is surgery. The other half is rehabilitation, which is made possible by the team at the centre. Especially when it comes to the big orthopaedics.”

Pictured: Vets4Pets has developed a Wellness Centre aimed at older dogs.

Since the initial practice first opened, Les and the team have between them offered a sophisticated range of treatments, including advanced orthopaedics, patellar groove replacements, fracture repairs, CT, interventional radiology, fluoroscopy and arthroscopy.

Les also arranges for a visiting MRI scanner to come to the island every quarter as there isn’t currently one on-island for animal use.

“MRI is an amazing piece of kit. I’d love to have one full time, but the best we can do at the moment is the visiting half-field MRI from Burgess Diagnostic.

“It costs a fortune. By the time you take into account all the costs associated with getting it here, running it, paying my team, sending off the imaging, etc., we break even. It just about pays for itself.

“We generate a list of patients in need when we bring it over. And we always open it up to the other practices who might have patients in need if we have the space. We’d happily do the scan for them and then send the results over. If there’s a patient in desperate need elsewhere on the island, we’d always find a way to help.”

Pictured: Les brings an MRI scanner over to Guernsey every quarter.

The week I sit down to speak to Les happens to coincide with an MRI visit. Depending on demand, the team will usually see 12-14 patients per day, but on this occasion, they’re seeing only eight. It will end up costing Les and the practice around £4,000 to make up the shortfall. So why does he do it, I ask?

“Sometimes it’s the only way we can get an answer. For some patients, it’s a life or death decision because there are neurological changes in the brain and either you can fix it or you can’t. The MRI helps us make that decision. It helps us to treat better and to understand better. CT is fab, but it doesn’t always give us the answer.

“People think vets earn hundreds of thousands. Fat chance! We’re not doing it for the money. There are far better ways to make it.

“I’m very lucky. I’m one of the few people who gets to do what they truly love. It’s not always puppies and love. It’s sad as well, but that’s part of life, and without the sad part you don’t appreciate the other part.

“Myself and Christine don’t always agree. We were talking the other day, and Christine said ‘we do a good job’ and I disagreed. I said I think we do a phenomenal job. We don’t always get it right - no one does.

“There used to be a time where I would beat myself up because we didn’t get it right. Now when we don’t get it right, we have a good look and we learn from it. Because that’s what you need to do. But thankfully, the majority of the time we get it right.”

Pictured top: Les with his dogs Sebastian (left) and Dante, who was fathered by Sebastian.

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