HE is the TV vet who has achieved an unlikely rock god status.
But had it not been for a grubby encounter with an incontinent cow earlier in his career, Noel Fitzpatrick may never have got the chance to perform to scores of adoring fans in arenas across the country.
Recounting that unpleasant but life-changing moment, the man better known as Channel 4’s Supervet tells the audience on the Aberdeen leg of his Welcome To My World tour: “As I wiped the s**te out of my eyes, I thought, ‘Maybe this is not for you’.”
The popular professor, 50, is getting standing ovations every night from audiences who had tuned in to see him perform pioneering bionic limb surgery on stricken pets over 12 series of his hit TV show.
His adulation in Aberdeen may have been down to the fact he wore a kilt for the second half as a treat to his Scottish fans.
Tomorrow he takes to the stage at the 12,500-capacity Wembley Arena and a week on Sunday the 02 in London, which holds 20,000 — venues more used to appearances by superstars such as Adele and Beyonce.
With glee he tells the 3,000-strong crowd at Aberdeen’s AECC Arena that more people have turned up to see him than saw U2 when the band performed in the city in the Eighties.
So it’s official then — this vet is bigger than Bono, his boyhood hero.
Welcome To My World lifts the lid on how he went from being the son of a farmer to one of the most revered vets in the world, and said to be worth around £14.5million.
Growing up on a farm in Co Laois, Ireland, Noel knew from an early age he wanted to become a vet.
At high school he was marked out for being “different” and “reclusive”, and lived “in a bubble”.
“Some had kissed girls, something I knew nothing about,” he tells his audience, before adding: “Still don’t!”
He was regularly tormented by bullies, who once threw him in a local quarry and “covered me in s**te”.
His friends were Pirate, the family sheepdog, and a superhero character he invented called Vetman, who could save him from being picked on and treat sick animals.
Noel, his brother and four sisters were expected to help out on the farm, and he would study late into the night while “listening to U2 on a broken record player”.
He admits: “I’m not the brightest spanner in the box and knew I wasn’t going to do very much with my life unless I worked hard.”
Noel was offered places to study both veterinary medicine and human medicine at uni. He opted for the former at University College Dublin, as he “couldn’t be arsed with people complaining all the time”.
After graduating, he worked as a large animal vet but changed tack after that cow “pooed on my head”. He then set his sights on realising his dream of becoming an orthopaedic veterinary surgeon.
Specialising in bones and neurological conditions, in 2005 he set up his private practice Fitzpatrick Referrals in Eashing, Surrey, where Noel and his team use ground-breaking technology to save the lives of animals. One former patient was Oscar the cat, who became the first animal to receive two bionic leg implants in 2009, earning the Supervet a Guinness World Record.
Backstage, Noel insists: “I’m not super. I’m just a bloke trying to do his best. But ‘bloke-trying-to-do-his- best vet’ isn’t a good name for a television show on Channel 4.”
There is no doubting his popularity on TV, and his autobiography, Listening To The Animals: Becoming The Supervet, was a bestseller too.
But Noel has been bowled over by the response to his live show, saying: “In doing this, I knew I could fail, the same way as doing any surgery I know I can fail.
“But I have to believe I’m going to succeed or I’d never go into theatre with a scalpel blade in my hands. I thought to myself, ‘Well, kicking the doors open of this theatre can’t be any harder than holding a life in your hands’.
“It may be that people don’t get it but I’m going to try.”
A young fan, carrying a home-made present, gets to meet Noel backstage as if he were a rock star.
Noel says: “I don’t identify with the term ‘rock star’. I identify with the little boy who just gave me that scarf.
“He was overjoyed. He had such a big smile on his face. He got over his physical disability to knit a scarf for me.”
Noel is more used to getting knitted hedgehogs from viewers of The Supervet, who know he loves the prickly creatures.
He laughs and says: “I bet Bono doesn’t have scarves knitted for him — or hedgehogs, which is great.” Noel adds that he is inundated with letters from children from all over the world, which is the reason he wanted to go on the road.
He says: “I started the show with one of them. It read, ‘I know you don’t have time, but here’s 72 questions for you . . .’
“I try to answer as many of those as I could in this show.”
The ladies love him too. Tall, dark and handsome, it is hard to imagine he was “never much of a natural” with them and was a virgin “until I was 21”, as revealed in his book.
He recalled the time a female client asked him to look at more than just her sheep.
She opened the door in “some rather lacy suspenders” and a “fancy basque beneath”.
But ever the professional, Noel declined her invitation of a cup of tea. He says: “My job is to do a good job for their animal.
“If they think something like that it’s really up to them.”
The Facebook group Supervet Superfans has 3,500 members, mostly women who post photos of him daily.
But he is quick to shut down any suggestion he is a sex symbol, saying: “I never look at anything of that kind because I don’t want to indulge in it. I just get on with what I’m doing.”
Noel has never married but says he has had his heart broken on numerous occasions, being told by many former partners that he is “selfish”.
Understandably, some women are not happy to play second fiddle to a cat or dog. Noel says: “When I decided to build my practice, I dedicated my life to that.
“I’m fortunate I love to do what I do.”
He also loves children but says: “I knew it was going to take 20 years to do what I set out to do when I was 30 and now I’m 50. I’ve had a very clear plan. It’s very important not to be selfish. Too many people in society take parenthood and marriage for granted, and I take them very seriously indeed.
“My mammy would be very disappointed if I felt differently.”
MOST READ IN FABULOUS
At the moment, the only female in his life is Keira, his 12-year-old Norfolk terrier, named after the actress Keira Knightley, who he fancies. Noel and his dog are inseparable and she is even touring the country with him. He says: “She’s the only one with a rider. I’m happy to sleep on the floor.”
Since the first series of The Supervet aired in 2014, applications to veterinary schools have shot up. Noel’s biggest wish is, somewhat controversially, to see the worlds of human and animal medicine combine for the benefit of all.
He says: “When I introduce the concept of One Medicine in the show, the round of applause genuinely moves me every time because I think, ‘Yes, people do want this’.”
As an elderly farmer once told a newly qualified Noel: “Everything is impossible until it happens.”
- Noel’s live show Welcome To My World tours the UK until November 25. Go to noelfitzpatricklive.com for tickets and venues. Listening to the Animals: Becoming The Supervet, by Noel Fitzpatrick, (Trapeze, £20 in hardback).
- GOT a story? Ring The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or email exclusive@the-sun.co.uk.
Link
https://textbacklinkexchanges.com/millionaire-tv-vet-noel-fitzpatrick-from-wiping-cow-ste-from-his-eyes-to-an-arena-tour-and-unlikely-rock-god-status/
News Pictures Millionaire TV vet Noel Fitzpatrick from wiping cow ‘s**te’ from his eyes to an arena tour and unlikely rock god status
You don’t have to pack away your bikini just because you’re the wrong side of 20. These body-beautiful stars reveal their secrets to staying in shape and prove you can smoulder in a two-piece, whatever your age. Read on and be bikini inspired!
TEENS
Hayden Panettiere
Size: 8
Age: 18
Height: 5ft 1in
Weight: 8st
To achieve her kick-ass figure, Hayden – who plays cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes – follows the ‘quartering’ rule. She eats only a quarter of the food on her plate, then waits 20 minutes before deciding whether she needs to eat again.
Hayden says: “I don’t have a model’s body, but I’m not one of those crazy girls who thinks that they’re fat. I’m OK with what I have.”
Nicollette says: “I don’t like diets – I see it, I eat it! I believe in eating healthily with lots of protein, vegetables and carbs to give you energy.”
kim cattrall
Size: 10-12
Age: 52
Height: 5ft 8in
Weight: 9st 4lb
SATC star Kim swears by gym sessions with Russian kettle bells (traditional cast-iron weights) and the South Beach Diet to give her the body she wants. To avoid overeating, Kim has a radical diet trick – squirting lemon juice on her leftovers – so she won’t carry on picking.
Kim says: “I am no super-thin Hollywood actress. I am built for men who like women to look like women.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Copy-of-NIP000448541082-e1542232655521.jpg?strip=all&w=815
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий