Meet the Team | Westside

Welcome to Westside

Veterinary practice serving your pets in Battersea, Clapham and Wandsworth. You’ll find lots on the site about us and what we offer, as well as opening hours and details of our out of hours provider. Feel free to contact us anytime, or just drop in.

Our History

Westside has been running since 1987. The practice has always strived to provide a professional, friendly and humane service to our clients, both human and animal. Recent years have seen a considerable upgrade in facilities in the treatment area, client records are now fully computerised for efficiency and because the practice is small we can also maintain a personal relationship with our patients. Hopefully – “The best of both worlds”.

Meet the Westside Vets Team

Our team of vets have over 50 years of combined experience, we pride ourselves of on the level of expertise and patient care we routinely provide.

Rory Cusack - MVB MRCVS

Veterinary Surgeon

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After graduating from University College Dublin, Rory worked in farm practice in Ireland and the UK. After a year in America he worked in practices in London and the home counties before buying the recently established Westside in 1989. He has climbed Kilimanjaroo [With Sandra] and is a keen scuba diver and a recent convert to cycling.

Kate Diamond RVN BSc (Hons)

Head Veterinary Nurse

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Kate qualified in 1999 and hails from South Africa, she is something of a polymath and has worked in several practices including work for major animal charities.

Following an interest in earth science, she completed a BSc in Natural Sciences (Hons) (Geology) at the Open University in 2015.

Kate has a particular interest in digital imagery and emergency & critical care and is currently undertaking a certificate in the latter. Outside of work Kate enjoys food,drink and illustration and has a small business producing screen printed artwork.

Sandra Lawson-Ince

Practice Manager

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Graduate school of life Sandra, as many of you will know, is very special. With a background in catering, cruise ships, animal welfare, she has had an association with the clinic going back many years. She will often be your first point of contact us, and while not entirely conventional, you will find her caring and keen to get things done. In spite of various old orthopaedic problems, Sandra will insist on undertaking various physical challenges which can involve mountains, bicycles and endurance events.

Jenni Court

Veterinary Nurse

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Jenni is the newest member of our team, joining us in June 2016. Having already worked at two practices since 1999 she qualified at her last practice in 2005. Jenni loves all animals but has a particular soft spot for cats, especially timid and geriatric . Also an interest in small furries. Jenni has two rescued cats, Ronnie and Reggie and has recently taken on a stray Herman tortoise “Mick”!! Outside work Jenni loves socialising, travelling and photography.

Yuri Belicanta MRCVS

Veterinary Surgeon

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Yuri was born in southern Brazil and spent an early childhood surrounded by horses, cows and gauchos before emigrating with his family to Italy. He graduated from the University of Padova and after realising that chasing alpacas in a field wasn’t for him, he went on an adventure to India to work for an animal charity. Having survived that, he started working as a small animal vet in the UK and has been here for quite a few years now. His main interest in veterinary medicine is ‘fixing the problem’, no matter what it is. Outside of work Yuri spends time lost in a musical world, playing piano, harpsichord and listening to old records. Another passion he has is Argentine Tango, which he teaches with his partner and has taken him to do dance performances and competitions.

Rachel Heygate BVM - BVS - MRCVS

Veterinary Surgeon

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Rachel graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2012. She worked in a 24 hour hospital in Rutland treating both farm and companion animals for 5 years. Rachel moved to practice in London after spending some time travelling in New Zealand and joined the Westside team in October. Outside of work she can be found outdoors on her bike and training for triathlons.

Niven Packery - MRCVS BVSC

Veterinary Surgeon

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Niven joined the team in 2018. He Qualified in South Africa and moved to the UK in 2015 and has been working in Small animal Practices in London. Niven is currently undertaking a post graduate certificate in Small Animal Surgery. In his spare time he enjoys fitness and weight training and looking after his rescue cat called “Cookie”

Bianca Maccallum BvetMed MRCVS

Veterinary Surgeon

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Coming Soon

Harini

Receptionist

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Harini is our little celebrity here at Westside! Winning Wandsworth Young Person of the year 2018 award, she is a friendly and hard working member of our team. Harini may be young but has already had a lot of experience working with us here for over a year, as well as Cats protection and at a horse riding school. She manage to fit all this in as well as her college work and hopes to become a Vet in the future, a dream we are all confident she will achieve.

Emma David

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Coming Soon

Gill Shala

Nurse

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Gill has returned to our nursing team after taking time out to bring up her two lovely boys. She is Good fun, calm, kind and vey competent. We are very happy to have her back at Westside.

Alice Connolly

Receptioist

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Alice has been with our team for some while now. She has a strong passion for working with animals and has a lovely dog called Jimmy and two fish. You can spot our Alice with her good humour and enthusiasm and is always ready to help