A VETERINARY clinic in Meldreth has recognised the work of two of its longest serving staff members who have dedicated a total of 40 years to the surgery. Margaret Stebbing has worked at Stone Lane Clinic as a veterinary nurse since it opened 25 years ago

A VETERINARY clinic in Meldreth has recognised the work of two of its longest serving staff members who have dedicated a total of 40 years to the surgery.

Margaret Stebbing has worked at Stone Lane Clinic as a veterinary nurse since it opened 25 years ago, and Christine Prove has been the office manager for the past 15 years.

Margaret and Christine said the best thing about the job is the variety.

"We never know what we will be doing from one day to the next. You can have plans, but they can go out of the window," said Margaret.

Christine said: "When you're working with the public no two people are the same so that's always nice. We have a lot of loyal clients who are more like friends."

Margaret and Christine have always been fond of animals and used to go horse riding together. But nowadays they mostly deal with cats and dogs at the clinic.

Margaret said: "Being a veterinary nurse is a challenging job but lots of fun."

During the last two decades they have dealt with a number of amusing cases at the clinic.

Margaret said: "People don't always know the sex of their animal so it comes in with one name like George and ends up as Georgina."

However, one of the worst cases they have had to deal with was when a dog came in with serious injuries after being hit by a train.

"It suffered the worst injuries I had seen in my life. It was just awful," Margaret said.

"It was quite a shock because we had never seen that type of thing before. But we just get on with it.

"It can, however, be hard because part of our job is dealing with the owners."

Christine added: "A lot of animals are peoples' surrogate children and they are an important part of family life so they are going to be upset.