NDSR vet nurse Helen Wright
North Downs Specialist Referrals Nurse Helping Stray Cats In Athens
6 years ago 
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A veterinary nurse at a leading specialist practice in Surrey has been flying out to Greece as a volunteer to help neuter hundreds of street cats.
Helen Wright, a registered vet nurse with the diagnostic imaging team at North Downs Specialist Referrals (NDSR), near Redhill, has been giving up her time to work in Athens and the island of Ikaria for the Greek Cat Welfare Society.
A veterinary nurse with 23 years’ experience, Helen said: “I love cats and I love Greece, so it’s perfect for me. I had heard about the charity and contacted them to volunteer my services and I’ve been out there on three trips so far, working with fellow volunteer vets.
“On my first visit to Athens we neutered 175 strays and a further 90 in four days on my second visit, starting early each morning and working into the evening.
“It’s a very long day and sometimes we have to carry out other operations, for example, amputating a leg from one cat and having to remove eyes from another two. We also administer flea and worm treatment and tend other wounds.
“It is relentless work but I love it and the Greek people are so grateful. They give us board and lodgings and they can’t do enough for us.”
Helen said local volunteers go out and set traps for the strays, usually in the middle of the night, then take them to the surgery for the operations.
If all has gone well, and after they have been given painkillers and antibiotics, they are taken back to where they were found and released.
“It’s a very slick operation,” said Helen, who also designs the charity’s calendar and plans to go back again in the spring.
For more information on the work of the Greek Cat Welfare Society, visit greekcats.org.uk. To find out more about North Downs, which is part of the Linnaeus Group, visit www.ndsr.co.uk.
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