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BVA Young Vet of the Year
BVA Young Vet of the Year celebrates the outstanding work of young and early career vets who are making a significant contribution, whether in their workplace or the wider veterinary community. It champions exceptional vets who lead, inspire, and go above and beyond what is expected early on in a veterinary career.
What you’ll win
In addition to securing the prestigious title of ‘BVA Young Vet of the Year’, the winner will receive an enhanced package, consisting of:
✔ £1,000 prize money
✔ One year of free BVA membership
✔ Mentoring/engagement opportunity with Zoetis
✔ Career development opportunities such as BVA ambassadorship and more
All nominees will receive acknowledgment of their nomination in recognition of their achievements.
Who can enter
BVA Young Vet of the Year is open to all vets in the first 8 years after graduation, and who are on the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) register.
You can either enter yourself or nominate an early career vet who you think deserves to be recognised. Nominations are welcome from everyone, including members of the public.
There is no limit to how many times an early career vet can enter or be entered. If you nominated or entered in previous years, you can again this year, as long as the entry criteria is met.
Nominees should be:
- vets who have been qualified for eight years or less
- vets registered with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS)
Nominees can work within any veterinary sphere, including clinical practice, research, education, or veterinary politics.
What the judges are looking for
The judges are looking for examples of:
- Outstanding and consistent levels of care to their patients
- Outstanding professionalism
- Great interpersonal skills with both colleagues and animal owners
- Going above and beyond the normal call of duty
- A significant impact to a specific cause or issue, animal welfare or the veterinary community
How to nominate or apply
It’s easy to apply. If you know an exceptional early career vet, or you are one yourself, submit a nomination today by completing our online form.
To complete your nomination, you will need:
- A summary of why your nominee deserves to win this award (max 400 words)
- Any supporting evidence for your nomination
- Your nominees full name, email, RCVS number (find a vet) and practice / workplace name and location.
Nominations are now open. Please submit by 23 November.
Supported by Zoetis
The award is part of a broader, long-term partnership between BVA and Zoetis as we work together to support, recognise, and champion the essential work of the UK’s young vets.
Find out more about our partnership with Zoetis.
BVA Young Vet of the Year 2026
Anna Hewison, who works in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, qualified from the University of Nottingham in 2022 and joined Shepton Vets, Somerset. She demonstrates consistently high standards of care, clinical excellence and genuine commitment to her development, collaboration between farmers, vet techs and her colleagues. Anna runs the practice’s Youngstock Club and has developed it into a more collaborative and effective programme, restructuring the scheme to encourage closer working relationships between vets, technicians, and farmers, ensuring a joined-up approach to youngstock management.
BVA Young Vet of the Year 2025
Leah Hunter has been awarded the BVA Young Vet of the Year Award for her extraordinary dedication, compassion, unwavering devotion to her patients, and professionalism in all aspects of her work, both in practice and outside it. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 2021, Leah began working as a mixed practice vet at Flett and Carmichael Veterinary Surgeons in Orkney, where she always goes the extra mile for her patients, whether within her practice or out and about in the Orkney countryside and coastline. She has developed a particular interest in small animal dentistry, regenerative farming and sustainability in practice and is passionate about nature and conservation.
BVA Young Vet of the Year 2024
David Charles was awarded BVA Young Vet of the Year for his enthusiasm, outstanding commitment and support for the farming community, and resilience during challenging times. A 2019 Bristol University graduate, David worked in mixed practice before joining Scarsdale Vets’ farm animal team in early 2020 where he developed a passion for small ruminant work and completed his CertAVP (Sheep). He went on to relaunch the ‘flock health club’ and secured funding for new advanced breeding services to support sheep farms across the Midlands. After sustaining significant injuries in a serious car accident, he was forced to step down from clinical work but went on to set up his veterinary consultancy, offering CPD training for vets and students working with The Webinar Vet and Vet Times. This year, he joined NoBACZ Healthcare as their International Business Development Manager, where he works to bring their innovative and sustainable products into the livestock health markets globally. He continues to offer sheep advisory services to farmers and teach students, and recently supported APHA as an OV during the current BTV-3 outbreak.
BVA Young Vet of the Year 2023
Commercial poultry and gamebird veterinarian Henry Lamb was awarded the 2023 Young Vet of the Year Award for his work tackling outbreaks of avian influenza in what was a very testing time for the poultry sector. In addition to this, the judges also acknowledged Henry’s role in encouraging other young vets to join the poultry industry. After graduating from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in 2018, he began working at Crowshall Veterinary Services, Norfolk, providing dedicated consultancy and Official Veterinarian (OV) provision to the poultry/gamebird industry across Great Britain and internationally. This has seen him working through the recent bird flu outbreaks, holding multiple OV panels, and preparing for export changes associated with Brexit.
BVA Young Vet of the Year 2022
Hannah Hunt was awarded the prestigious Young Vet of the Year Award in recognition of her passion and exceptional dedication to her high-level work across multiple species, including farm animals, equine and companion animal practice. She is also learning to speak Welsh in order to strengthen relationships with her Welsh-speaking clients at her bilingual practice in Aberystwyth. To help raise awareness with the public, Hannah has appeared on national radio giving veterinary advice and on children’s television to promote being a “big animal vet”
BVA Young Vet of the Year 2021
Alex Davies was nominated for his dedication in supporting students considering joining the veterinary profession through his role at Vet Mentor. Alex has developed and delivered numerous educational projects for students applying for veterinary medicine. The most successful project is the creation of a highly praised, free-to-access virtual veterinary work experience programme, which saw more than 1,000 students viewing real vets interacting with animals and clients, followed by teaching sessions led by Alex. By driving the growth of Vet Mentor over the past years, Alex has provided opportunities for other veterinary professionals to inspire future vets, including teaching collaborations with the RCVS.
Young Vet of the Year 2020
Small animal and exotics vet and star of CBBC’s ‘The Pets Factor’, Fabian Rivers was awarded our Young Vet of the Year Award in 2020. Fabian wowed our judges with his ongoing proactive contributions to the veterinary profession and his passion for raising awareness around exotic animal care.
Young Vet of the Year 2019
Dedicated farm animal vet, Emily Craven, who supported her local practice at a time of need and who has shown a passion for her work around lameness and mobility in cattle was awarded our Young Vet of the Year Award in 2019.
Reflecting on winning the award, Emily said “I was lucky because I had someone in my team that believed in me and took the time to write that citation and the judges agreed. There are so many young vets out there doing incredible work, and I just hope their bosses take the time to support them in that way.”