Ashleigh Miles

Veterinarian & Practice Owner

Steven Porep

Veterinarian & Practice Owner

Peter Barratt

Veterinarian

Graduated in 1983 from Murdoch University

Peter has worked with large and small animals from Bowen to Townsville before joining the team in 2007.  He has a special interest in all things to do with Native, birds and exotic species.

Champika Nissanka

Veterinarian

Champika (a.k.a Champ) graduated with a BVSc from the University of Melbourne in 2010.  He also has a degree in Veterinary Science from Sri Lanka.  He has worked in practices in the East Melbourne suburbs and East Gippsland in Victoria.  He then moved permanently to Cairns in 2013 and worked at a vet practice in Brinsmead.  Champ joined the Marlin Coast Veterinary Hospital in 2015 where he enjoys all aspects of the veterinary profession including being part of a very dedicated team of professionals.  His main interests are internal medicine, dentistry and surgery.

In his spare time, Champ enjoys gardening, travelling & a game of chess.  After their beloved King Charles Cavalier Spaniel named Monty passed away last year, he and his wife Nishari are hoping to become parents again soon.

Liam Sweeney

Veterinarian

Liam joined our team after graduating from JCU in early 2019 and returning home to live in Cairns.

Liam realised from from a young age he was destined to work with animals after going missing at the Cairns Tropical Zoo to crawl around with ducks!

A recent highlight of Liam's time with MCVH was performing a lifesaving emergency abdominal surgery as a new graduate with Dr Steven's assistance, at 2.00 am in the morning.

As a pet owner to two dogs Ruth and Walter and ragdoll Martha, Liam appreciates how much pets mean to their owners and takes pride in performing the same level of care as he does for his own.

Tegan Ford

Front Office Manager

Tegan Is one of the lovely smiling girls who greet you at reception.  She is a very hardworking member of our team, and can usually be found helping clients on reception. She has completed her Certificate 3 & 4 in Companion Animal Studies, and is also a Level 11 Parelli Natural horsemanship. Tegan assists in horse calls, admissions and discharges and stock ordering, along with her busy reception duties.

Tegan came to us after spending 17 years working in the retail pet industry and has extensive knowledge with tropical & marine fish, birds, dogs, cats and reptiles. 

Tegan is kept very busy by 2 lovely horses, 1 cat and 2 beagles, one of which is a retired customs dog.

Shannon Diblasio

Head Nurse

Shannon is a qualified Veterinary nurse and joined us in 2013. Shannon is our nursing manager, helping manage the surgery and staff. She has a high level of experience and knowledge with exotics, birds and reptiles having previously worked in the zoo industry. 

Shannon has a strong passion for all the native wildlife Cairns has to offer and enjoys spending time exploring the great outdoors. Shannon is a member of FNQ Wildlife Rescue and has raised mainly macropods in the past.

Shannon is owned by her cheeky Galah Inca, an Amazon parrot called Echo & her cat Willow

Katherine Stevens

Senior Vet Nurse

Kath graduated in the UK in 2007 with a B.Sc. in Veterinary Nursing and Practice Management.  She worked in General Practice and Referral before moving to Sydney in 2014.  During her time in Sydney, she worked at the Small Animal Specialist Hospital in Ophthalmology, Surgery, Dentistry, Exotics and ICU.  In 2018 Kath qualified as an Emergency & Critical Care Nurse. 

Kath relocated to Cairns with her family and joined the MCVH team early 2020.  Kath proudly states: “MCVH has some of the best veterinary professionals I have ever worked with.  They are dedicated and available 24 hours a day to deal with whatever emergency or illness your pet may have”. 

Kath knew she wanted to work with animals from a young age and was inspired by watching David Attenborough documentaries.  She has a passion for Emergency & Critical Care, exotic species and education. 

Kath’s highlights include assisting with a root canal on a Sumatran Tiger and being able to utilise her skills to help sick and injured animals every day. 

“Seeing a seriously ill animal arrive in the hospital and being part of a Team dedicated to treating and nursing it back to health and seeing it go home, is incredibly rewarding”

Leanne Hogan

Veterinary Nurse

Leanne has been in the vet industry for over 25 years, starting out as a kennel hand and then moving onto nursing as a qualified vet nurse working with behaviour vets, orthopaedic surgeons and in general clinics.

With experience in various roles such as managing clinics and head nurse, these days she finds joy in customer service.  Leanne is one of our chatty, super friendly and attentive nurses that greets you on our reception desk!

Leanne is bonded to the clinic, in her words “Vet visits can be stressful so its my role to help, reassure and try my best to give you and your loved ones a positive experience. I am so lucky to work with a bunch of brilliant, dedicated, intelligent and caring vet and nurses.             And yes, we genuinely love our job!

Memorable moments are seeing pets go home, pure excitement of owner and pet is so wonderful to watch.

Outside of work Leanne absolutely loves her 2 wolfhound crosses, Boris and Paddi and 4 indoor cats, Rufus, BooBoo, Goosie and Poppie.

Molly Coe

Trainee Nurse

Molly’s journey in veterinary nursing  started in 2012, joining the MCVH team as a school based apprentice, moving on to then complete a traineeship, completing the Veterinary Nursing Certificate IV in 2018.

Growing up, Molly cared for her own little zoo at home. She fell in love with having the responsibility to look after something so vulnerable and dependant, understanding their nature.

Nowadays, Molly has a cheeky golden retriever named Flip and a colourful eclectus parrot Mango.

Molly enjoys all aspects of vet nursing but has a passion for critical nursing and exotic anaesthesia, and loves the fact that each day is fast paced, interesting and diverse.

Kelly Irvine

Veterinary Nurse

Kelly relocated to Cairns with family from Melbourne in 2017 when she began working at MCVH.

Prior to this Kelly worked at a bird specialist clinic for 4 years where she completed her Cert IV in Veterinary Nursing.  She then expanded her knowledge and nursing by entering the Emergency and Critical Care Clinics where she completed her Diploma of Veterinary Nursing Emergency and Critical Care for 4 years.

Her passion is pathology and surgery, and loves learning about new and exciting diseases and animals recoveries from major surgeries. 

Kelly lives with her cat Ink, cockatiel Harry, having lost her two Labradors Chelsea and Maximus in 2021 has a new edition to the family, adorable labradoodle Mayzi.

Kelly enjoys working in the close nit MCVH family, working together to give the best compassionate care to your pet, whether its for a vaccination, day surgery or stay in hospital.