Beverley Bostock
Chair of Respiratory Disease Sub Committee
Asthma Lead
Beverley qualified as a nurse at St George’s Hospital London. She has an MSc in Respiratory Care and an MA in Medical Ethics and Law. Bev works as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in long term conditions in Gloucestershire and is an independent prescriber. In addition to being the Chair of the Respiratory Disease Sub Committee and Asthma Lead for the for the Association of Respiratory Nurses, she sits on the Executive Committee of the Primary Care Respiratory Society. She previously worked with the Open University to develop and deliver modules in asthma and COPD at diploma, degree and master’s level. Bev was a member of the Topic Expert Group which developed the Asthma Quality Standards for NICE and she also sat on the National Review of Asthma Deaths. She is Editor in Chief of Practice Nurse Journal and has been a Queen’s Nurse since 2015.
Emma Rickards
Vice Chair of Respiratory Disease Sub Committee
Acute Care Lead
Emma is a Consultant Respiratory Nurse who works for Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Knowsley Community Respiratory Service and she is passionate about reducing health inequalities in respiratory care.
Emma qualified as a nurse with a Bsc (Hons) in Nursing studies then soon after completed her Msc in Professional Practice with a pathway of difficult asthma. As a keen researcher/practitioner Emma is a PhD student studying End of Life Care for patients with COPD in ED and as part of her studies has undertaken her Mphil. For this, Emma has received the Florence Nightingale research scholarship 2017/2018 and again 2018/2019. Emma is also currently undertaking her MBA.
Emma started her career working at the Northwest Lung Centre working in acute respiratory care. Emma has a passion for research were and she was fortunate enough to gain a post at the Clinical Trial Service Unit in Oxford. In 2007, she moved back to the North West Lung Centre, but this time worked in respiratory research at the Medicines Evaluation Unit.
In 2008 she was joined the respiratory team at Whiston Hospital providing acute in reach care. The integration of services led Emma to work across both the community and hospital setting where she later became to Oxygen Lead for Knowsley and Liverpool Heart & Chest as well as the Early Supported Discharge clinical Matron. During this time Emma has gained numerous qualifications in advanced respiratory care, COPD, Spirometry, Oxygen, diabetes, asthma, research and various management and leadership qualifications. She also has a variety of publications and abstracts surrounding different elements of respiratory care.
Emma is the Vice Chair of the Respiratory Disease Sub Committee and Respiratory Nurse Acute Care Lead for ARNS.
Rachel Daly
Bronchiectasis Lead
Rachel Daly is the Lead Nurse Specialist in the Manchester Airways service at the Northwest Lung Centre, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. Rachel manages patients with Inducible Laryngeal Obstruction, complex breathlessness and difficult to control asthma. Prior to this she was a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the tertiary Severe Asthma Service for over 8 years. Both services are nationally leading respiratory centres. In her current role she manages a team of allied health professionals and has an active role in teaching, education, and research. Rachel facilitates nurse led specialist clinics treating patients with complex respiratory conditions and has written guidelines and treatment pathways to help standardise and deliver best practice and expert care.
In 2015 Rachel won the Nursing Times Award (respiratory category) for her ground-breaking patient support group for individuals with severe asthma. Furthermore, Rachel had again won the Nursing Times Award (respiratory category) for 2021 showcasing the importance of treating rhinitis in patients with refractory breathlessness and has also published articles and co-authored in various journals.
Rachel is a non-medical nurse prescriber and has a BA Hons in Respiratory care and has completed a National institute for Health and Care research (NIHR) Early career research programme. She has attended numerous national conferences presenting her work. Rachel is currently the only complex breathlessness specialist nurse and is leading the way in this field. She is an active member of the Northwest Severe Asthma Network and first ever elected nurse member within the British Thoracic Society ( BTS) Specialist Advisory Group for Bronchiectasis. Prior to this she was an elect member of the BTS Standards of Care Committee for 4 years. Rachel has recently presented on the first ever nursing track at the World bronchiectasis conference of 2024 held in Dundee.
Rachel is extremely passionate about improving patient care through collaboration, education, and research.
Jess Mandizha
Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) Lead
Jessica Mandizha is an Interstitial Lung Disease Clinical Nurse Specialist within the Exeter South-West Peninsula ILD Service. Over the previous ten years she has developed a passion for providing holistic and individualised patient care for people with ILD, alongside improving services and health outcomes through patient-centred research.
Within her role, Jess supports patients across the southwest region with various ILDs from diagnosis through to end-of-life care. Her focus is always on maintaining or improving quality of life for patients and their families and works alongside a supportive care team to help achieve this.
She has recently worked with a physiotherapist colleague to develop an innovative ILD-specific fatigue and breathlessness (FAB) supported self-management programme. Jess runs a nurse-led ambulatory oxygen service which is based on the principles of shared decision making.
Alongside her clinical practice, Jess is passionate about nurse-led research and has been awarded successive, competitive grants, allowing her to lead projects examining the patient experience of home spirometry in ILD and modifying a patient reported experience measure for use with ILD patients. She has presented her work at ERS congress, the ILD-IN annual conference and the BTS summer meeting, most recently winning a ‘highly commended’ prize for her work on the FAB programme.
Since qualifying from King’s College, London, Jess has gained over twenty years of nursing experience, both in the UK and overseas. This includes working in the Emergency Department, as a travel health nurse specialist, a repatriation flight nurse and a clinical research nurse. She has an MSc in Public Health.
Jess teaches at events such as regional ILD Nurse and AHP professional meetings and Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis patient education days. She enjoys mentoring others, including colleagues undertaking local research fellowships. She runs a monthly meeting for local respiratory nurses and AHPs with an interest in research, to offer mutual encouragement and support.
Joanne Thompson
COPD Lead
Joanne qualified as a nurse in 1994 and began her career working at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in acute medicine and cardiology. Following this, she then worked in critical care for 14 years whilst gaining her BSc (hons) Critical Care. Later Joanne took the role of Respiratory Nurse Specialist in 2009 working in both COPD and asthma. This involved leading and driving change of both services and during this time, she completed her NMP and PGCert in Advanced Practice. Joanne has previously led Hull’s severe asthma and COVID-19 follow-up services and worked with the NHS Humber Coast and Vale Cancer Alliance targeted Lung Health Check team as a Responsible Assessor.
Joanne’s current role is the operational lead for the Respiratory Virtual ward. This new and innovative service has a strong focus on the safe and effective delivery of specialist care and treatment to patients affected by COPD. This also includes new ways to incorporate digital support and artificial intelligence and how this can anticipate exacerbations.
Joanne is also a member of the Northern Regional Act on COPD Forum, Humber and North Yorkshire Tobacco Programme Board and Health and Care Partnership Respiratory Clinical Network, local Respiratory Champion and vice chair of the asthma forum. She also supported the Sentinel Project team in educational resources for HCPs, partnering to improve asthma outcomes in Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire, reducing SABA overuse.
She is enthusiastic about education provision to the multidisciplinary team across the region, co-founding the Hull and East Yorkshire Respiratory Education (HEYRespEd) group, affiliated with the Primary Care Respiratory Society and supported by Asthma + Lung UK.
HEYRespEd’s vision is to improve the delivery of local respiratory services, offering high-quality education accessible to all across primary and secondary care providers, providing a platform for healthcare professionals across the interface to discuss the clinical management of patients with respiratory disease, sharing best practice and experience.
Rachel Halliday
Pleural Lead
Rachel is a lung cancer and pleural nurse specialist at the Countess of Chester Hospital. She has been a qualified nurse for 15 years and has been a Lung Cancer Specialist nurse for the past 12 years.
In 2018, she contributed to the development of a pleural service in the trust, which has gone from strength to strength with more and more patients being seen in the outpatient clinic, avoiding unnecessary admissions to hospital. The pleural service has led to the development of Rachels role, and she is now undertaking a master’s in advanced clinical practice. Rachel is enjoying the challenge of learning new skills in the management of pleural effusions as well as providing education and training in this area of care.
As a pleural nurse, Rachel is extremely patient focused as she provides holistic individualised care to patients and their families to promote independence and improve quality of life. Rachel contributes to regional improvement projects and is looking forward to networking and promoting best practice on a national level.
Viv Marsh
Children and Young People's Lead
I became a registered nurse in 1991 and since then have worked in acute paediatrics, school nursing, specialist nursing, clinical education and research.
My primary professional interest is to contribute towards improving quality of life and clinical outcomes for children and young people (CYP) with asthma and I am proud to have collaborated with NHS England around the development of the capability framework set out in the CYP Asthma national bundle of care.
As the Clinical Lead for Children and Young People’s Asthma I am responsible for the implementation of the national bundle of asthma care in the Black Country. We have commenced an exciting program of work around Children and Young People’s asthma in the Black Country and our aim is to deliver feasible and sustainable improvements in outcomes for all CYP with asthma.
In my research role I work with general practice teams across the UK to implement the IMP2ART research trial strategy to improve supported self-management of asthma in routine primary care practice.
My other professional activities include membership of the Asthma + Lung UK Council of Healthcare Professionals, writing for publication and delivering professional education. I am the Lead Asthma Tutor for Rotherham Respiratory where I have developed and manage a range of online asthma education modules from introductory to advanced levels.
Our Team
Executive Committee
Diagnosis & Therapy
Sub Committee
Research and Education
Sub Committee