Luke Gamble

Luke is a mixed practice vet who graduated from Bristol in '99 and spent a year at Cambridge in 2001 as clinical scholar in large animal medicine and surgery. He has worked at many practices throughout the UK and is the founder of Pilgrims Veterinary Practice in the New Forest.

With a remit to help as many animals (and people) as he can in his career, Luke's passion is his extracurricular work with the charities Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS) and Mission Rabies which he founded in 2003 and 2013 respectively.

Luke has starred in several TV programmes on Nat Geo, Animal Planet and Sky. He has written several books and lectures internationally on animal welfare and zoonotic disease control. He has a track record as an accomplished emergency vet having set up and run one of the UK’s most successful emergency OOH service for animals, covering 28 practices in Bournemouth and Poole for eight years and is the founding director of PetAir UK - the UK’s largest shipper of domestic pets internationally.

The recipient of several veterinary awards including the JA Wight (James Herriot) Award by the British Small Animal Veterinary Association for outstanding contributions to the welfare of companion animals, IFAW vet of the year, the Global One Health Award by the World Small Animal Veterinary Association , the Jeanne Marchig Animal Welfare Award and CEVA charity professional of the year, Luke was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery by Edinburgh University for pioneering leadership in the field of animal welfare and made a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons for meritorious contributions to the profession in 2018.

Outside of the veterinary field, Luke is ta 3rd dan black belt in Goju Ryu karate, an Ironman triathlete and has completed the Marathon des Sables – a 152 mile self-supported foot race across the Sahara desert. Luke is married to Cordelia (also a vet) and lives in the New Forest with his four children, four dogs, two very naughty rescue cats, a couple of ponies, a snake and a transient population of re-homed rescue chickens! More info on Luke at lukegamble .com