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“I aim to provide the best standards of care for every single patient, because I know how it feels to spend time in hospital”
Laura Turnbull is a Registered Veterinary Nurse at Paragon Veterinary Referrals, a small animal referral hospital in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
In 2015, at just 27 years of age, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was told in March 2019 that it had spread to her vertebrae and ribs. Despite this devastating news, Laura has shown incredible resilience and remains positive and focused on the future.
She has drawn up an ambitious bucket list of activities she wants to fulfil, including trekking to Mount Everest’s base camp, running a marathon, working with penguins and doing up a camper van to travel through France and Italy with her dog!
Persevering through illness
“I have continued to work hard, even though people advised me to give up as I wouldn’t be able to complete everything I wanted in time. After getting sick, I carried on anyway. This has made me proud of myself as well as extremely passionate about my job. I aim to provide the best standards of care for every single patient, because I know how it feels to spend time in hospital, have surgeries and have treatment. My (medical) nurses were the ones that got me through all of this. I want to – and aim to – do that with every animal patient I see.”
Combining passions; work and travel
“After my degree, I decided to travel and work. One long weekend turned into five years! I worked and travelled in Europe, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Australia and Central and South America. I’ve worked for a Big Cat Rescue site in Namibia. I also taught science – especially about animals – at a school in Tanzania.
In 2017, I decided to move to India. I saw a job advert on Facebook to help set up a new practice over there. The owner wanted ex-pats to train vets and assistants and set up protocols so they could provide international standard veterinary care.”
Love for the job as a veterinary nurse
“I have worked in veterinary practices since about the age of 15 – mostly just work experience or voluntary work. Despite thinking I wanted to be a vet, after working in practice and seeing what both the vets and nurses did, I fell in love with the nursing side.
I studied Bsc Zoology at Leeds University. When I started, there was no veterinary nursing degree. Instead, I opted for Zoology and planned to continue with a nursing qualification after this.”
Laura’s story is incredible. Read more inspirational stories from our other role models, including sustainability champion, Ellie West, and vet nurse and entrepreneur, Lindsay Davies.
“Enjoy every moment”
Celebrating Laura’s life
Brave Laura’s motto was ‘enjoy every moment’ and, true to her word, she certainly lived life to the full.
Laura passed away in January 2023 following a brave and dignified battle against cancer, and her death has led to heartfelt tributes from those who knew her, from close family through to work colleagues, keen to shine a light on her strength, enthusiasm for life and commitment to raising awareness of metastatic breast cancer.
As well as continuing in her beloved role as an RVN at Linnaeus-owned Paragon Veterinary Referrals in Wakefield, for as long as she could, Laura used social media to help her efforts to support others suffering from cancer, often inspiring hundreds of positive responses. She also raised money for breast cancer charities, as well as fronting a Marks and Spencer campaign in breast cancer awareness month.
Her love of animals, not least her many patients at Paragon, also stayed with her. Indeed, her commitment to her patients was clear to see during Covid as she continued to work despite being vulnerable herself.
Laura’s mum, Hilary, said: “Laura’s love of animals started early. When she was young she loved horse riding and would spend all day on a Sunday working at local riding stables, mucking out in order to get a free riding lesson. Her free spirit also emerged from a young age as Laura was always happy and cheerful – and sometimes a bit mischievous, getting into many scrapes and a few visits to A&E, although thankfully nothing too serious. Laura was strong, determined, beautiful, intelligent, funny, sensitive, kind and loving. She didn’t realise how much. She was one of a kind and she touched everyone she met, inspiring people without even knowing it.”
“My motto is the Hindi saying ‘har pal me zindagi’, which loosely translated means ‘enjoy every moment’.”
Laura had previously posted on her GoFundMe page: “My motto is the Hindi saying ‘har pal me zindagi’, which loosely translated means ‘enjoy every moment’.
“I certainly try to appreciate everything and I am grateful for what I have. Of course, I don’t want to die but we all will at some point, so at least I have time to accept it, right?”
Hilary added: “I’m very proud of what Laura achieved but perhaps none more so than when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer and her determination to continue training as a veterinary nurse. “She continued to work and study and passed all her exams in 2016, also receiving a veterinary nursing award for ‘best veterinary nursing final year student’.”
It was Laura’s inspirational spirit and indomitable determination that encouraged colleagues at Paragon to launch the GoFundMe account so she could fulfil an ambitious bucket list of activities. Among the items she was able to tick off included a visit to the Himalayas, Christmas in New York and a Broadway show.
Paragon’s nursing team leader Stacy Carlton said: “Without a doubt, Laura was the best, strongest and bravest person in the world.
“She was also one of the best veterinary nurses that I’ve ever worked with. Every single patient received her total devotion to providing the best level of care. She had no hesitation in taking home all the wildlife to rehabilitate, the strays no-one wanted, and the kittens that needed extra care and attention. Laura was incredible in every way.”
Laura requested that if anyone felt moved to donate in her memory, the following charities were supported:
The Kirkwood, which provided support for Laura and her family https://www.thekirkwood.org.uk/
Met Up UK, a charity for women living with secondary breast cancer https://metupuk.org.uk/
Animal Rescue Trust Pune, a charity for animals in India that she helped to set up www.animalrescuetrustpune.com