About Jo Williams

Johanna Williams, March 1962 – February 2022

The Jo Williams Clinic is named in memory our late colleague.

Jo qualified as a Physiotherapist in 1984 from Newcastle-upon-Tyne Polytechnic (later Northumbria University). She worked in Sheffield after qualifying and completed her Certificate in Physiotherapy in Intensive Respiratory Care there in 1987. After some time travelling in Canada, Jo later returned to the UK and in 1991 completed a Masters in Rehabilitation Studies in Southampton, before settling in Leicester.

Jo was passionate about rehabilitation and worked both in clinical care and research in the field of Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) for much of her career.  She made a huge contribution to research in this area. Most well-known was her work at Glenfield Hospital, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, developing outcome measures for PR used worldwide today. For example, she led the development of the Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire Self-Report questionnaire in 2001 and the i-BODE risk assessment tool in 2012. Jo was a great mentor to junior colleagues; she completed a term as secretary for the European Respiratory Society Physiotherapy group, promoting the work of up-and-coming academics in her profession.

Throughout her career Jo strived to improve the services where she worked and was completely committed to her patients. Following her research work at Glenfield Hospital, Jo moved out to the community in Leicester to deliver rehabilitation services in a variety of settings and to support patients in their homes.  Subsequently, Jo put all her clinical experience into educating others as a Cardiorespiratory Lecturer at the University of Leicester. Jo was highly regarded by staff and students and was nominated by both when we asked for name suggestions for the new clinic. Jo gave the same level of commitment, professionalism and care in all her roles over her career and her values were ideally suited to the profession.