Chris is both an RCVS Specialist and a European Specialist in Small Animal Cardiology and sees both medical and surgical cardiology cases.

Chris graduated with Honours from the University of Liverpool in 2007. He then worked for 2 years in Lincolnshire in first opinion small animal practice. In 2009 he returned to the Veterinary School at Liverpool University as an Intern in small animal studies, followed by a three year residency in Cardiology and was subsequently promoted to the position of Lecturer in Cardiology. He has worked at Willows since 2015 and is the clinical lead and Head of the Cardiology team.

Chris has a keen interest in congenital heart disease and performing cardiac catheterisation procedures for correction of heart defects. Due to the excellent reputation of the cardiology service amongst fellow cardiologists and primary practice vets, Chris is one of the most experienced minimally invasive cardiologists in the UK and Europe. He has spent time with the charity Animals Asia in Chengdu, China investigating heart disease in rescued moon bears from the bile-farming trade and is helping to improve their health and general well-being.

Outside of work Chris is kept busy by his young family and two dogs and can often be seen enjoying the great outdoors with the whole family.

Chris has two dogs; Izzy, a sweet, ageing Hungarian Vizsla who has a love for HPR trials and training and Bertie, the loveable rogue. Bertie is a Whippet who was born with a congenital heart defect and had surgery with the Willows Cardiology team at just several weeks old – now, fully recovered, he doesn’t even know he ever had a heart problem!

Brigite is an RCVS and European Specialist in Small Animal Cardiology who sees medical and surgical cardiology cases.

Brigite graduated in 2008 from the University of Porto, in Portugal. She first moved to the UK in 2009 and completed an internship at a referral center in Essex. In 2010 she was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci scholarship from the University of Porto, which allowed her to undertake an internship in Cardiology at the University of Liverpool Small Animal Teaching Hospital. In 2012 she started a three-year residency programme in Veterinary Cardiology at the same institution. In 2014 Brigite was awarded a Masters degree in cardiovascular pathophysiology. In 2015, having completed her residency, Brigite was promoted to the position of Lecturer in Cardiology at the University of Liverpool. She became a European Specialist in Veterinary Cardiology in 2016.

Brigite has given numerous presentations at national and international congresses and has published several papers on topics such as dilated cardiomyopathy, pulmonic stenosis, cardiac tumours and atrial fibrillation.

Brigite is particularly interested in the diagnosis and management of arrhythmias, in particular, atrial fibrillation which is the main topic of many of her current research projects. In addition, she has a great interest in congenital heart diseases and their medical and surgical treatment.

Outside work, Brigite likes to spend time with her friends and family, and also loves travelling and visiting new places.

João graduated in 2009 from Oporto University, Portugal. After graduation, he initially worked for four years in general practice in Portugal. Focused on studying towards to become a cardiology specialist, he moved to the UK in January 2013 to undertake a cardiology internship at the University of Liverpool. After this, he completed a 13-month rotating internship program at Dick White Referrals and, in 2014, he started his residency in Small Animal Cardiology at the University of Liverpool. After completion of his residency, João was promoted to Lecturer in Small Animal Cardiology in the same University before joining Willows Referral Service in 2018.

He enjoys all aspects of medical and interventional cardiology but he has a particular interest in feline cardiomyopathies, cardiorenal syndrome and atrial fibrillation. João has given presentations at national and international congresses on several topics of small animal cardiology as well as cardiology-focused CPD.

Outside work, João enjoys to spend time with his family, friends and Lego, his Golden Retriever. He loves travelling and travel filmmaking.