Staff at a rural veterinary clinic expressed delight after being crowned as the winner of a prestigious national award.

Wangford Veterinary Clinic was awarded the Practice of the Year in the 2020 Petplan Veterinary Awards, which took place virtually for the first time last week.

The winners were announced last Thursday, May 28 during a virtual ceremony held on Petplan’s Facebook page, with the unique event hosted by Gyles Brandreth.

After being shortlisted in the final three for the Practice of the Year category, this year’s event attracted more than 37,000 nominations across all categories.

Commenting on their win, Dr Walter Stöhr, director of Wangford Veterinary Clinic, said: “As a small rural business we were so proud to have once again achieved a finalist status with this prestigious award.

“To then be announced as the Winners of Practice of the Year 2020 was a dream come true for us.

“We have all been overwhelmed with the response from our clients and colleagues from within the industry, especially at this difficult time.

“We would like to thank each and every person who nominated us, the Petplan team and judges, and a personal extension of gratitude goes out to our wonderful team, who consistently deliver an outstanding service, with the best care for all the animals we see, as well as their owners.

“Without such a wonderful team at Wangford Veterinary Clinic, we would never have been able to achieve this amazing feat.”

The judges were particularly impressed by the number of heartfelt nominations for Wangford Veterinary Clinic with the range of nominations truly demonstrating the capabilities of the team.

These included: “extremely trustworthy individuals, with a strong community involvement, they approach every task with collaboration.”

Jill Asquith, Customer Care at Wangford Veterinary Clinic, added: “You can imagine how excited we all are.

“It was our third time as finalists which in itself is pretty good for a small independent practice like Wangford but to win a nationwide award is just fantastic.”

Isabella von Mesterhazy, head of marketing at Petplan, added: “I would like to congratulate all of the winners on their brilliant achievement.”