Page 74 - Eclipse - Autumn/Winter 2022
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IN MEMORIAM




                                            was her work for Vets4Pets Norwich   Heather’s illness progressed quickly.
                                            Longwater, where she worked ever    Her strength, peace and clarity as she
                                            since her move to the county.       went through all that she was facing
        HEATHER GAGE                        Heather was pivotal to her practice –   gave those around her great comfort –
        (NÉE RYAN) (2004)                   she was a caring vet who loved her job,   and in typical Heather style, during the
        By Lorna Clark                      a kind person and a natural mentor.  last visits we made to the hospital, she
        Obituary, published in Vet Record,                                      never stopped chatting. We laughed and
        Vol 189, Issue 11, 4/11 December                                        cried, and she talked openly about her
        2021, p446                                                              plans to make sure that everyone was
                                                                                going to be OK after she had gone.
                                                                                She was described perfectly by a
                                                                                close friend, who said: “She created
                                                                                a wave of love that spread throughout
                                                                                our group”. This would have been an
                                                                                incredible feat for anyone, but even
                                                                                more so for Heather, considering
                                                                                what she was going through.
                                                                                Heather passed away on 11 October
                                            Tributes received from new graduates   2021, aged 40, surrounded by her family.
                                            who had worked with her have been   She leaves behind her husband, Stewart,
                                            extremely moving. They referred to her   and her five-year-old son, Jenson.
                                            as ‘mama vet’, which describes perfectly
                                            her nurturing style of leadership. One   Heather loved dancing, cocktails and
                                            said: “I arrived in practice as a terrified   cheesy music. She asked that rather
                                            new grad and Heather mentored me    than a sombre funeral, she should be
                                            through. She was patient, kind, and   remembered and her life celebrated
                                            gave me a love for medicine that I have   the way she lived it.
        Heather Gage (née Ryan) BVetMed,    pursued since then. She set me off on   To honour Heather, we should get
        MRCVS, (b) 1981, (q) Royal Veterinary   my career and I’m the vet I am because I   our glad rags on, pour ourselves a
        College 2004. Died 11 October 2021.  wanted to be like her.”            mojito and dance around (badly) to
        A wife, mother, friend and vet.     Her team describe the practice as being   some 90s disco tunes, just as she
        The world – and profession – will   like a family, with Heather at its heart.  would want us to.
        be worse off for her loss.
        Fulfilling a lifetime ambition, Heather
        graduated from the Royal Veterinary
        College in 2004.
        She was the ringleader and the glue
        that held a large circle of good friends
        together throughout college and after
        graduation. Her huge smile, positivity
        and sense of adventure (or sometimes
        misadventure) meant there was rarely a
        quiet night in when we were around her.
        After graduation, Heather spent a
        couple of years in small animal practice
        in Essex and then – as is testament
        to her determination, planning and
        optimism – decided that she was
        going to move to Norfolk, for no other
        reason than she just thought it would be
        a lovely place to live. And for her, it was.
        Heather carved out a life for herself
        and her family there, and central to this

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