60 seconds with hospice director Jo Tonkin 

Never be frightened of change – when one door closes another always opens, says St Helena Hospice director of patient and family services Jo Tonkin

After qualifying as a registered nurse in 1987, Jo Tonkin worked on the haematology and bone marrow transplant unit at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge before moving to London to work at Charing Cross Hospital and The Royal Marsden. She has held Macmillan clinical nurse specialist posts in palliative care and oncology/haematology, and spent ten years as a nurse consultant in haematology at Colchester Hospital in Essex, where she was also head of nursing for medicine and urgent care. She took up her current role as director of patient and family services at St Helena Hospice, Colchester, in October 2017.

What are your main work responsibilities?

Managerial, operational and financial responsibility for patient and family services