Claire Pesterfield

Claire started nurse training at Canterbury Christ Church College in 1992 specialising in children’s nursing and qualified as a Registered Nurse in 1995.

Claire started her career at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, on the medical ward and then the paediatric high dependency and intensive care unit where she stayed for 6 years, gaining additional qualifications in intensive care nursing and working as part of the retrieval team for critically ill children.

In 2001 Claire moved to the Children’s Diabetes Service at Addenbrooke’s and as a diabetic, it seemed like a natural move. Claire stayed in this role until 2017. During this time, Claire led the paediatric diabetes nurse team, presented at national and international conferences, obtained a MSc in Clinical Research and sat on numerous advisory groups and boards.

Latterly during this time, Claire was joined by her Medical Alert Assistance Dog, Magic who would let her know when she was about to go hypo – this had become more challenging and welcoming Magic into the diabetes team not only allowed Claire to continue her nursing career but would eventually open up other doors in nursing.

In 2017, Claire left the NHS after 22 years and joined Medical Detection Dogs, a charity training assistance dogs for people with life-threatening conditions as their Medical Liaison. The role involves clinical assessments, liaison with specialist healthcare teams, education and providing emergency medical assistance on site.  This led Claire to undertake prehospital care courses which led to becoming a prehospital care trainer and in 2024 qualifying as an Ambulance Nurse which she continues to do to this day alongside her work at Medical Detection Dogs.

Claire proudly wears a belt in the colours of the Royal Army Medical Corps as a tribute to her father Roy Pesterfield, a State Registered Nurse in the Army, who qualified in 1966.  A case of ‘Tradimus Lampada’ or ‘We hand on the torch’.