Who are you?
My name is Steve Fletcher and I run The Broadcast Business, a London based video production company working across communications and marketing.
We work with a wide range of different clients from engineering, financial services, food and drink and car companies, but the client we are most proud to be associated with is BradyCare..
How did you meet BradyCare?
I’ve known Ursula for probably 15 years having met her at the Mayhew Animal Home where she was chief vet.
Growing up surrounded by animals – cats, dogs, and horses, I have a great empathy for all living creatures and especially so as being a lifelong vegetarian. From a very young age I refused to eat meat primarily because of the dislike of the taste but as I grew older, I realised that the pain and suffering that animals raised to feed the human population was something I did not want to entertain. My compassion for animals is what drew me to the Mayhew. Having always had cats in our family, my wife Francine and I were looking to rehome a cat from the Mayhew.
Caption: Hugo, Lily, and Mia
We were very proud to adopt two semi-feral tabby kittens that had been hand reared by one of the veterinary nurses. Lily and Mia have developed into the most adorable cats and have over the years been joined by a variety of different stray cats that have a knack of turning up unannounced in need of rehoming. Each time a stray turns up we ask around the neighbourhood and put-up posters to see if anyone has lost a cat, before invariably trying to befriend them, allowing us to take them to the vet and have them checked over.
Tell us more about your cats
Hugo always “helps” Steve and his wife Francine
Over the years we’ve adopted Louis, a beautiful grey and white cat that was FIV positive that we were advised against taking on. Then there was Bagpuss, a long-haired ginger and white cat who just turned up once Louis had passed on. After Bagpuss, Honey turned up. He lived in a neighbouring street but disliked the arrival of a small baby and so was constantly roaming the streets and adopted us. Luckily his owners realised he was happier living with us, Lily and Mia, and so allowed us to formally adopt him. When Honey sadly passed away it was another six months or so before another stray cat appeared in our street.
Again, another ginger cat who was looking rather bedraggled and very timid, he would appear in our garden and very tentatively eat food we left out for him. Noticing his injured leg, we were able to catch him with the help of a neighbour.
We took him to the vet to check him over and have him neutered. The vet assumed we were just going to let the cat go, to which we said, “Well, we think we’ll see how we get on with him”. We kept Hugo segregated from our other two for about three weeks before gradually introducing them to each other. It wasn’t long before we did open the door and with one swift biff to the nose from Mia, the ginger cat knew his place.
Hugo, as we called him, still had Tom-like tendencies for several years and would get into little scraps with neighbouring cats. But as time has passed on, he has become the most docile and placid cat you can imagine and loves the company of Lily and Mia.
We’re fortunate enough to have a good-sized garden – one of the key features is our pond which is full of all manners of wildlife including frogs, fish and newts. We also have a visiting heron who also likes to hunt the frogs and fish, unfortunately.
Living in London (UK), we also have quite a lot of urban foxes. These are regular visitors to the garden and always respectful and docile, probably because we buy them dog food so they turn up every night like clockwork waiting to be fed. We’re really pleased that our foxes are happy to share with our resident hedgehog too!
What do you do for BradyCare?
Having known Ursula for so long, she was keen to ask me to be involved with BradyCare as she needed someone who could help film and edit the modules which form such a key part of the learning process. This was something I was really keen to do and it’s become more and more of a passion project. Ursula and I are both very similar in the sense that we both want to strive for the best. It’s quite hard to sometimes know when to say no, enough – everything is fine!
In fact, I think Ursula gets a little bit frustrated when I’ve asked her to do something for the fourth or fifth time because her delivery wasn’t quite word perfect or there was a slight strange hand movement.
Ursula and Steve editing the learning modules
The detail of editing a film is so dependent on getting the minuscule details spot-on, something I think Ursula is learning, but I do have a great selection of quizzical looks and frustrated stares of her in the outtakes!
I have the greatest respect for Ursula and what she stands for. Very few people take the care and compassion of animals as seriously as she does. The innovative and engaging way that Ursula has developed to teach vets around the world is truly unique. She has a very engaging and appealing manner which allows her to explain very complex detailed processes in a very simplified and straightforward way which makes it so much more accessible. In fact, I think I am at the stage where I could almost neuter a dog without too much trouble (I’m not sure Ursula would approve though!) but I don’t think my stitching would be as good as hers…
What do you love to do when you’re not working?
Francine and I support many animal charities but BradyCare’s mission to improve the welfare of both animals and vets across the world is something we fully support – by improving the success rate and efficiency of neutering is the best way to address the stray animal population.
Away from work, together with my wife Francine, we love restoring and renovating our home, taking great pride in putting back some of the original detail. This is something I have also done with my 50-year-old MGB sports car, taking time to renovate and improve where possible.
Alastair Dell, Ursula, and Steve at FAVNA Middlefart Denmark.
Growing up I was fortunate enough to have a mother who was a fantastic cook, something she passed on to all my sisters and something that I love to do. I like to be as inventive as I can producing different vegetarian dishes, often starting with a recipe and then adapting it using a different recipe or whatever ingredients I have available. I know Ursula would really love me to move to a fully plant-based diet. The food she and her partner Jesper produce is truly amazing and inspirational so that is something I aiming to do.
But sadly, I do rather like cheese a little bit too much but maybe I should explore the vegan alternatives a little bit more….