Professor Noel Fitzpatrick talks about his music festival One Live and the ideology behind it. The Supervet is hoping to make the festival part of a sociopolitical revolution in the way we approach human and veterinary medicine, all whilst having an great time with some amazing live music.
Professor Noel Fitzpatrick is a very busy man. Since we spoke to him two years ago, the star of Channel 4’s The Supervet has started his own music festival, been a founding partner of the new veterinary school at the University of Surrey, opened his new Oncology and Soft Tissue hospitals in Guildford and is well on the way to building the world’s leading custom-designed animal implant factory to replace body parts with metal and growing tissue, also in Surrey.
All of which he has accomplished whilst simultaneously filming The Supervet and running his huge Orthopaedic and Neurology veterinary practice near Godalming. One suspects that his availability for interview is largely due to the impact of recent surgery – human, not animal – that has temporarily imprisoned him in a plaster cast.
Not that he is allowing such trifles to slow him down.
“I’m not really good at following my own doggy instructions,” he admits. “With every patient, I always say no running, jumping or strain, and here I am rolling myself around in a wheelchair trying to operate.”
If there is one word that sums up Noel Fitzpatrick, it’s ‘genuine’. The superficial trappings of celebrity hang loosely from his shoulders: societal change, not personal fame, is the dream that inspires him.
“I’m trying to act as a messenger and a catalyst for inevitable change,” he asserts. “I don’t give a damn about financial gain or any of that stuff.”
His upcoming festival, One Live – a concert on June 4 at Guildford’s Loseley Park – reflects that desire. More than just music, it’s designed to showcase aims that have captivated Noel since his youth. Its primary goal? To raise money and awareness for his charity, The Humanimal Trust, which seeks to combine the efforts of veterinary and human medicine for the betterment of both.
“The planet has limited resources. We can’t just rely on endless animal experiments to give us the implants and drugs we need to cure cancer and arthritis, or to give people new bionic legs.
“If veterinary practice and human clinical practice don’t come together, we are just being dumb. In a lot of cases, the technology I am deploying for animals is some years in advance of anything relating directly to humans.
“What we need is political change; new legal freedoms to look at, say, dog cancer – which is 90%+ the same as human cancer – and study it alongside human forms. That way we can replace, reduce and refine our use of animals in testing – the established ‘Three Rs’ of humane research.
In a sense, of course, the idea of combining human and veterinary medicine has a long and venerable history. Diabetes, for example, was a death sentence until the 1920s. Then, working initially with living dogs, and then with foetal calves, Canadian scientist Frederick Banting contrived a way of using insulin as a treatment. It proved a lifeline for millions.
Such work, however, was done purely with humans in mind. Noel, whose bionic limbs have similarly revolutionary potential, wants human and animal research streams to merge.
“We are undoubtedly ahead of the human field with these limbs. In fact, I was lecturing about this last week to human consultant surgeons. I said: ‘Hang on, how does this make sense? I’ve invented a wheel and you’re going to start with a square again and do 1,000 experiments on animals to find out what I already know.’
“What I want is a change in legislation and willingness to allow phase one clinical trials – of drugs on diseased humans – to be directly informed by treating diseased animals with the same conditions so that we can save lives on both fronts. It’s stupid that, under the current system, it’ll take seven years and hundreds of animal lives to get to technology that’s already been invented and that we could use to save lives today.”
Indeed, when it comes to bionic limbs, Noel’s work is so far ahead of the game that it sounds like science fiction.
“The problem of how to get skin to grow onto metal, which was the Holy Grail for so long, is now solved. Now we’re working on neural interface, which will drive a bionic limb with the nerves implanted using electrodes in your muscles.
“Moreover, we are tantalizingly close to a fully integrated limb in humans. We could do it in two years if The Humanimal Trust raises enough to fund the phase one trials. Guildford should be hugely proud, as so much of the research and development has come from its own veterinary hospitals and university.”
The second major aim of One Live, which was launched last year, is to make science and medicine more accessible to the public through the medium of music.
“When I was 18, I saw Queen live,” recalls Noel. “I remember vividly the moment Freddie Mercury stood up on stage, holding his crown high, to sing One Vision. One man, one love, one hope, one vision...
“It struck me right then that my goal was to make medicine magical through music; to make it accessible; to lift people and give them hope; to make hope sexy again.
“On The Supervet we show a journey of love, focusing on one person and their pet, with the science in the background. We try to translate the wonder of science through the medium of love and One Live will aim to do the same.”
Noel Fitzpatrick takes a bow with Mike and the Mechanics at the end of last year's One Live
It’s an approach that has clearly resonated with the British public, as The Supervet is now on series six.
“The reason three million people watch every week is because of that message of hope. They don’t watch because I’m talking about the next generation of hip replacement. If all I did was go on about the specifications for the latest animal implants, it wouldn’t be called The Supervet – it would be ‘The Fairly Mediocre Vet’ instead.”
As will, by now, be abundantly clear, Noel invests a huge amount of himself in every project – and One Live is no exception. He is funding the festival personally and also chooses the acts.
“I handpicked them because I wanted it to be very personal,” he explains. “Dan [the singer from The Feeling] came into the operating theatre with me and observed as I performed spinal surgery. As we were looking down on the nerves wrapped around the spinal cord, he said: ‘That looks just like the strings of a guitar.’ I said: ‘Exactly, my friend, my art form and yours have a lot in common. I’m translating a medical script into a song of redemption for the animal, just as you’re trying to write a song to lift people up.’
“I’ve spoken in person to every band that will be there, because I want their music to elevate everyone in that field to a different plane, – just like Freddie Mercury did for me in 1985.”
And if that isn’t enough to have you scrabbling for a ticket (only £40), then perhaps the royal seal of approval might sway you.
“Last week I was lucky enough to have lunch with the Queen and she thought the festival was a great idea. She absolutely got it – the whole concept. She loves dogs and horses and realizes that arthritis is more or less the same in a person as it is in a dog. She thought that was super obvious, which was awesome to hear from such an inspirational figure.”
When it comes to articles, the hardest part is finding a snappy conclusion. Today, however, I need have no fear: Noel’s felicitous feel for the quotable phrase does the job on my behalf.
“There are three important things in life: love, health and something to look forward to. I am giving you love in that field; I’m giving you health through the combined efforts of animal and human medicine; and, my god, am I giving you something to look forward to!"
“If we can make this festival work, it will be a huge source of pride for Surrey. So, please, buy a ticket, come along and be a part of change for the better.”
- Looking for another great Supervet piece? You can check out our article exploring the bionic medicine of Fitzpatrick Referrals by clicking here.
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