Supervet & animal king Noel Fitzpatrick on his upcoming event How Animals Saved My Life

Virgin Radio

16 Apr 2021, 10:50

The professor and vet extraordinaire joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about his lust for life, surviving Covid twice and the importance and unconditional love we get from our pets.

On recovering from two nasty cases of Covid, he shared: “I was out of it for two weeks just laying there thinking, if it all ended today what have I done and what did it mean? And that's a lot about what this event next Monday night is about - what does it all mean?

“You might only be here till tomorrow. Animals have got us through lockdown and my two cats and my dog were there. So, what I felt was an intense sense of vulnerability and I think that that is what people are feeling during lockdown, a kind of collective humbling of everybody.

“I really, really, really hope that the world recognises this interconnection when this is gone, that we are all together because this virus doesn't care what colour, race, creed you are…

“Unless we collectively come to the realisation that we live in a global world we're not going to beat this and for me, as a veterinarian, if we don't realise that we're related to animals now when are we ever going to realise?”

What else can we expect from his event on Monday night? He shared: “It’s about how we're integrated, how animals got us through it, how do you get through anything, how the crisis affected me and what I thought about it, but importantly, how we're all related and to draw a line on it."

Looking towards the future - and more importantly the present - he shared: “I had a bad year, I thought I was going to die. We're all an inch away from it but let's be amazingly excited about today.

"When I got this morning I thought, wow, isn't it brilliant that I'm here today and I have a responsibility for everybody around me and that's the important message I think to take out of COVID.

“We’re all interconnected, interrelated animal-human, human-animal, your neighbour, your friend, the person down the road you've never met.

“So please be careful, please be responsible for your fellow man and woman and child and dog and cat...

“There are only two things that are important; love and the acknowledgement that you are valued. That is what we all have missed during lockdown.

"Please understand, life isn't a line in the sand. Life is a moment. We have a moment and this is it, and I'm overjoyed to be in a moment with the people I love on Monday…"

Of the blinkers of life being removed post pandemic, he said: "Whatever it is you do for a living, it doesn't matter. We only want two things; love and a sense of belonging and that sense of belonging comes from contact.

"A lot of people who have been on their own during lockdown have had that contact to their dog or a cat, because they can't get it from a human and I've seen a psychological revolution in people's empathy for the language of a dog or a cat that isn't English or French or German - it's actually a telepathy of love.

“When you feel that moment of effusive joy that I'm so lucky to be surrounded by, that's what I want to share with the world on Monday and every day.”  

How Animals Saved My Life with guest host Lorraine Kelly takes place this Monday, 19th April at 7pm.

Tickets are on sale at ticket master.co.uk and gigs and tours.com.