International Member Spotlight: Dr Emma Milne FRCVS

After a decade of living and working in the South of France, RCVS Fellowship Board member, Dr Emma Milne FRCVS, reflects on her diverse veterinary career. She shares her passion for welfare work and writing, her current life as a primarily self-employed vet and RCVS Fellow, and the importance of living life to the fullest.

Where are you based?

I’ve always wanted to live in France – I love the culture and way of life so decided to move there in 2015. We’ve been here ten years now and haven’t looked back.

I live with my children near a town called Perpignan not far from the Spanish border. The first year was difficult as my children were only four and six and went into the mainstream French school system – I didn’t want to do the international expat thing! I felt guilty at first, but it was the best thing we ever did. After the first six months they both started speaking French and quickly became bilingual. Our village is the only place I’ve ever really thought of as home. I can’t wait to come back when I’ve been away travelling for work or back visiting the UK.

What’s your role and what type of work do you do?

I have an incredibly varied role, but my main focus has always been animal welfare – more specifically campaigning on extreme conformation. I haven’t worked in practice for a long time now, and since moving to France I’ve worked on a freelance basis with a variety of different organisations. I’ve written ten books on responsible pet ownership, as well as articles and interviews.

Near the start of my career before moving to France, I ended up becoming a part of Vets in Practice – a big UK TV show that regularly got 8 million viewers. I was very lucky, in that the media exposure gave me lots of opportunities to progress to different things. I’ve always used my social media presence to talk about extreme conformation and back when I was on Vets in Practice, it felt like I was the only person speaking up about it. There were other people, of course, but because of my media presence I had more of a public platform. At one point I was getting so much hate – receiving death threats and being inundated with messages about how horrible I was and even people being abusive about my parents and children. I’d had enough and had decided to jack it all in, but I then got this message through from a vet working in Asia thanking me for all my work and for raising awareness of the issue. That one message made all the difference for me. I knew I had to carry on and I haven’t looked back since. Attitudes around extreme conformation are definitely changing but there are still those even within veterinary who don’t see it as an issue, so there’s a lot of work still to be done.

I travel a fair bit and often speak at conferences on animal welfare, as well as working on and off for Hill’s, a pet nutrition company, writing articles and as a clinical nutrition advisor.

I love being primarily self-employed. I have so much flexibility and get to work on things I’m truly passionate about. Having a variable income with two kids can be scary, but it’s worth it for the flexibility.

Are you involved in veterinary in France?

Most of my work is either UK based or international. Since Brexit, unfortunately as a UK national I don’t have the right to work here, unless I get citizenship (which, as it happens, I’m currently in the process of applying for!). I would never want to work in practice here though – I love working flexibly and having the opportunity to travel.

I have done a fair bit of animal welfare work with the Federation of European Companion Animal Veterinary Associations (FECAVA) though, so it’s nice to feel more integrated through that.

Why did you decide to become an RCVS Fellow?

To be honest, I never thought I would become a Fellow. I hate anything that involves self-nomination and it was only after my ex-husband mentioned the fact that being a Fellow is seen as a valuable credential and could help my work to reach more people that I decided to go for it (well, that and the fact that one of my friends had been badgering me for years about it!). I couldn’t believe it when I got it. Before I knew it, there were spaces available on the Fellowship Board – I decided to throw my hat in, and I got that too!

How do you think working overseas could help expand the role of the Fellowship?

As a Fellowship we should be promoting the profession to the public. People need to see how hard we work and what incredible people we’ve got in the profession and that just because you’re a general practitioner (GP) vet without extra qualifications, it doesn’t mean that you’re not one of the most hardworking and caring people out there. We’re focussing on improving diversity within the Fellowship to include more GP vets and it is important that the public understand the value GP vets bring too. The Fellowship has a real opportunity to stop the vet bashing!

Globally, veterinary is a small profession and, as a Fellowship, we have real opportunities to get out there on a global scale to educate the public. The Fellowship can make contacts with international bodies – if the Fellowship is seen as being the best of the best of the profession, then we should have a voice that is listened to by policy makers. However, by definition, Fellows are some of the busiest people so getting people to give up more of their time when they’re already working so much can be challenging.

Have you ever experienced imposter syndrome? If so, how have you tried to overcome it and what advice would you give to others?

I’ve really battled with imposter syndrome over the years. When I was first asked to speak internationally, I was so excited but felt like a massive imposter.

Also, when I applied to the Fellowship, I asked for references from people who I massively respect, and it turned out that they looked up to me too. Some of the stuff they wrote was so lovely it made me cry! I still struggle to recognise my achievements and have never been good at bigging myself up.

As I child I was very timid and lacked self-confidence. But eventually, you get to a point in life where you think 'I’ve just got to go for it!'. It sounds like a massive cliché, but you want to regret the things you’ve done, not the things you haven’t. It’s easy to stay in a comfortable position when you’re not 100% happy because it’s the least scary option. The times when my career has changed the most has been when I haven’t been happy. The more you force yourself to do things outside of your comfort zone, the more the imposter syndrome starts to diminish.

I’m also a great believer in that if you’re going to do something, then fully throw yourself into it. Don’t half do something – fully commit and do it properly. Aim for the best life you can possibly have for yourself.

Did you always want to be a vet?

Yes – ever since I was around six or seven. I don’t remember wanting to be anything else! When I was young there were only six vet schools, so it was a tough course to get into. I was told that there were around 200 applications for every place.

Growing up I didn’t have an animal background – I went to a mixed comprehensive and my parents worked with offenders. I was absolutely bonkers about animals though – I used to watch all the David Attenborough programmes avidly.

When I said I wanted to be a vet, everyone said I should have a backup plan but I didn’t want one. I went for it and didn’t get into vet school first time – not because I didn’t have the grades, but because I didn’t have enough work experience. So, I took a year out waitressing and gaining unpaid experience at vet practices and farms, got everyone to write me references and created my own case studies, and was then given two unconditional offers. I ended up a Bristol Vet School and absolutely loved it.

What do you get up to outside of work?

I love the pace of life here – there’s a completely different attitude to work life balance. I live in a really special village where a lot of people have moved to from the north for the same reasons that we did – it’s a better quality of life. It’s the sunniest place in France and is full of wine! I have fantastic French friends here and despite not having the same cultural and childhood connections, we’re extremely close as we all have the same outlook and attitude to life – we want to enjoy it!

I play the drums in a band which I absolutely love. In the summer we play at the beach restaurants, and it’s got the best atmosphere. Other than that, I spend a lot of time with my kids, as well as enjoying restaurants with friends.

The scenery is absolutely stunning. It’s the best place.