Our wonderful volunteers come from a huge range of backgrounds and experiences and have some remarkable skills to offer. That’s certainly true of volunteer Receptionist at Sheffield Pet Hospital Steffi Tille, who’s a qualified Doctor of Plant Biochemistry. Here she tells us how she came to volunteer at PDSA.

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I work full-time at Sheffield University as a Research Associate where I’m doing research into sustainable agriculture, specifically the interaction between micro-organisms and wheat!

Fortunately, it’s quite a flexible job and allows me time to come to the Pet Hospital as a volunteer. I was looking for something to do in the world of animal welfare so this was a great opportunity. I’m also getting valuable experience of what life’s like in the veterinary world.

I really enjoy working with my colleagues and seeing all the pets that come into the Pet Hospital. They’re given such good care and the owners are helped to understand what’s wrong with their pets by the vet team and what needs to be done. I love working in such an environment where we’re educating people as we work and guiding the owners to know more about pet wellbeing.

It’s always busy on reception and I’m usually checking or renewing a client’s eligibility, answering phone calls or asking for a contribution towards the cost of their pets treatment. In fact, I worked in a pub for many years and found that experience comes in handy when dealing with long queues and having to be patient with people.

I’m often asked about myself as I grew up near Bremen in Germany and have lived in Sheffield for just over seven years. But I still have a German accent of course which always intrigues people and gets a conversation started.

I’m proud to be a PDSA volunteer and to be able to help such a great and committed team. It’s so rewarding to see pets that have been poorly getting better again.

Our wonderful volunteers come from a huge range of backgrounds and experiences and have some remarkable skills to offer. That’s certainly true of volunteer Receptionist at Sheffield Pet Hospital Steffi Tille, who’s a qualified Doctor of Plant Biochemistry. Here she tells us how she came to volunteer at PDSA.

​

I work full-time at Sheffield University as a Research Associate where I’m doing research into sustainable agriculture, specifically the interaction between micro-organisms and wheat!

Fortunately, it’s quite a flexible job and allows me time to come to the Pet Hospital as a volunteer. I was looking for something to do in the world of animal welfare so this was a great opportunity. I’m also getting valuable experience of what life’s like in the veterinary world.

I really enjoy working with my colleagues and seeing all the pets that come into the Pet Hospital. They’re given such good care and the owners are helped to understand what’s wrong with their pets by the vet team and what needs to be done. I love working in such an environment where we’re educating people as we work and guiding the owners to know more about pet wellbeing.

It’s always busy on reception and I’m usually checking or renewing a client’s eligibility, answering phone calls or asking for a contribution towards the cost of their pets treatment. In fact, I worked in a pub for many years and found that experience comes in handy when dealing with long queues and having to be patient with people.

I’m often asked about myself as I grew up near Bremen in Germany and have lived in Sheffield for just over seven years. But I still have a German accent of course which always intrigues people and gets a conversation started.

I’m proud to be a PDSA volunteer and to be able to help such a great and committed team. It’s so rewarding to see pets that have been poorly getting better again.