To the rescue!
friendly. I couldn’t read or write very well and I was having a very tough time at school, and it was very difficult to rise above that. I sought refuge in superheroes. I invented Vet Man, who would save all the animals and stop all the bullies.
“Befriending my dog and believing superheroes could actually exist was redemptive. It tells you, look, you can either succumb to this, lie down and feel sorry for yourself, or you can say, actually, there’s something much bigger than this that I need to achieve. And I knew that I needed to do something with my life that actually mattered.
“Vet Man was, dare I say, real to me. In other words, he would be strong enough, he would be brave enough, he would be clever enough… and so I focused on him.”
He also focused on his schoolwork – eventually not only catching up with his classmates but overtaking them and winning a place at University College Dublin before going on to study in America. From there he returned to Ireland as a farm vet, before opening Fitzpatrick Referrals in 2005. The practice now includes two hospitals specialising in orthopaedics and neurosurgery and another in oncology and soft-tissue surgery.
After the success of The Supervet, he says he saw a chance to “affect positive change” on an even greater level, hence the current arena tour.
Not that he’s letting it get in the way of his day job. If he’s spending every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night on stage right now, he’s also putting in the shifts at Fitzpatrick Referrals. He explains that after his recent gig in Blackpool on Sunday night he drove straight back to Surrey, arriving home at 4am and was back in the practice Monday morning. Perhaps it helps that he remains unmarried at 50.
He has also found the time to write an autobiography, Listening To The Animals: Becoming The Supervet. He admits he does worry “about spreading it a bit thin”, but feels what he’s doing is too important not to do.
In that sense one might say that Fitzpatrick is not only bringing Vet Man – the superhero who would save all the animals, beat all the bullies and bring unconditional love to the world – back to life, he’s actually trying to become him.
“This is real life,” he says. “This is raw. I’m going to die at some point and I want to inspire the next generation to make a world that doesn’t consume itself and doesn’t combust and in which we care about each other a bit more.
“I wanted to get a platform that would allow me to translate what I saw as unconditional love into the world because I genuinely think the world badly needs it. We should be about healing the world in all its dimensions: physical pain… and spiritual pain.” Noel’s show Welcome To My World tours the UK until November 25. Visit noelfitzpatricklive.com for tickets and venues. TWO years after his clodhopping efforts on Strictly endeared him to the nation, Ed Balls’s dancing efforts still attract ridicule.
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