2 Jun 2025
As Volunteers’ Week begins, Reg Godwin describes gaining a new lease of life 12 years on from retirement with the StreetVet team, Plymouth.
Chris Simpson
Job Title
Reg Godwin (centre right) with the StreetVet team in Plymouth.
A retired vet has described his joy at volunteering for a veterinary charity supporting people experiencing homelessness and their pets – 12 years after hanging up his stethoscope.
Reg Godwin, 75, was motivated to begin working with StreetVet’s Plymouth team in early spring after having his hearing restored last year.
He had gone deaf since retiring from a 40-year career in 2013 for stress-related reasons, by which point his hearing difficulties had made communication with clients increasingly challenging.
Dr Godwin said he “effectively spent four years in complete silence like a Trappist monk” after doctors failed to resolve the problem, before a new aid restored his hearing “within seconds” of trying it.
He added: “It was life changing, because I’d become agoraphobic.
“I couldn’t go out. I wouldn’t go out. I was not communicating with the family; I was just completely and utterly isolated.”
Speaking to Vet Times ahead of Volunteers’ Week (2 to 8 June), Dr Godwin said gaining a new lease of life inspired him to start volunteering.
He reached out to StreetVet after becoming aware of its work and felt he was well prepared thanks to his prior experience with charity clinics, including an 18-year stint at PDSA’s Plymouth hospital, as well as four years at RSPCA’s Putney hospital.
Dr Godwin said: “This is a sort of outside version of that. Rather than the people coming to you, you go to the people.
“They want to be in their own environment and on their own terms, and StreetVet really allows them to do that. The bond that these people have with their animals is absolutely fantastic.”
A team of volunteers from the charity provide free veterinary care to the pets of people experiencing homelessness one night per week in Plymouth.
After the periods of extreme stress that prompted him to retire as a clinician, Dr Godwin said StreetVet has proved a welcome change of pace, adding: “The three hours a night is, just compared to how intense life used to be, a joy, quite honestly.
“It’s quite a novelty to be seeing animals at that time of the day rather than under fluorescent lights.”
The Devonshire-based vet hopes to volunteer further with the charity by joining the Cornwall team for its weekly outreach.
And despite his age, Dr Godwin believes he still has much to give. He said: “The old hands hadn’t lost any of the skill, really. I still feel that I’m as good as I was.
“I’m still mentally sharp, even though I’m 75, and physically fit and well; why not do it?
“And I always said that when I became a vet, I resolved that I would be a vet for life, and I don’t see why any of that should change.
“I shall, in my mind, remain a vet until my last breath. It is a true vocation.”
He added: “I felt I’d lost my identity when I had to retire – I enjoyed treating people’s animals, I enjoyed interacting with people; it gave me an enormous kick when things got better.”
