“Don't train to be a veterinary nurse – you'll spend all your working life cleaning”, teenager Hayley Walters was told by one of her lecturers at college in the early 1990s. Not the smartest piece of career advice ever offered, Hayley might think, as she steps forward to receive an MBE for services to veterinary education at Buckingham Palace in June. John Bonner talks to Hayley about her work, travels and achievements.