Claire Hodgson

BVetMed CertAVP AVP (EM) MRCVS

I graduated in 2000 from the RVC. I started in mixed practice then after 5 years settled into life as an equine vet where over the next 12 years I combined work and study, gaining my CertAVP in Equine Medicine and running a multi centre clinical audit as part of the research project of my work toward a Masters. In 2015 I was diagnosed with ME/CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome), a diagnosis which was both hard, as it has no real medical explanation or treatment, and liberating - at least I now understood why things had become difficult. In 2018 I co-founded a Facebook community to support individuals in all areas of the veterinary profession living and working with chronic illness and disability. This a same year I made the decision to pivot out of the equine world and back to small animal in the role of locum vet. This gave me autonomy over my time and the ability to try and find better balance of my health and to allow me to develop other projects. In 2021 we formally launched a new charity ‘British Veterinary Chronic Illness Support’ (BVCIS) with the goals of support, education and advocacy and I was elected inaugural Chair I now split my time between my role as a locum vet and my work for BVCIS.