Dr Townshend is a General and Respiratory Paediatrician at the Great North Children’s Hospital, Newcastle Upon Tyne. Her clinical interests are asthma, cystic fibrosis and dysfunctional breathing.

She is the co-founder and chair of BeatAsthma, a charity aimed at improving education in paediatric asthma and standardising paediatric asthma care.

She has contributed to a number of national investigations into children’s asthma, co-chaired the training and capabilities work stream for the National Asthma Bundle of Care and has been the National Clinical Lead for CYP asthma since 2022.