Local Face: Jo Rees

Jo Robbins was born into a family where both parents were keen tennis players. Her earliest memories include sunny afternoons watching father, Ken winning the cup yet again at Aylesbury Tennis Club in Wendover Road and mother Stella played until very recently.

Having been born in Aylesbury, Jo first of all attended Prebendal school and from the age of seven caught the bus daily to Tring and the Arts Educational School where she developed her dancing talents. At 11 she was sent to board at Thornton Convent but on leaving school she returned to dancing at the Royal Academy of Dance and then pursued a three-year teaching course at the London College of Dance and Drama.

She followed sister, Heather, into British Airways as an Air Stewardess and for two and half years served long haul on VCIO’s and 707’s until she married Keith Rees, a British Airways pilot, and transferred to BA Ground Stewardess.

Jo and Keith moved to Lechlade in Gloucestershire in order to raise a family in more space than their London accommodation and Nick was born. Meanwhile, Jo’s interest in dance led to membership of a Health and Beauty Exercise class which is aesthetic as well as athletic. She was soon invited to train as a teacher and since she was already a qualified dance teacher she took the post graduate course which was part-time for a year. Then Jo set up her own very successful Health and Beauty Exercise class. More children arrived: Jonathan and Charlotte.

Keith moved from flying back to a London based job and so the family had to move East again and by chance in 1986 found a house next to Wendover Tennis Club, walking distance away from Jo’s parents. Naturally the family became members and the tennis genes showed straight away as Jonathan was “spotted” on a Wendover court before he was 10 years old and soon became a member of the Bucks County Junior Tennis Squad which meant Jo and Charlotte accompanying him every Sunday morning to Maidenhead or Cliveden for tennis training. There were great sighs of relief when training was transferred to Halton. A University student now, Jonathan still plays for the County. In the past he and brother Nick have won Junior, Senior and Doubles titles in the Annual Wendover Tournament.

The whole family enjoys Wendover Tennis Club and after playing in the Ladies’ team for many years, Jo is now starting her third year as Ladies’ Captain. Her family accuses her of playing “morning, noon and night” but matches tend to be in the evenings and at weekends.

As well as involvement with Wendover Tennis Club, Nick and Jonathan started playing on the grass courts at Great Missenden with school friends and since 1991 Jo has organised The Great Missenden Official Lawn Tennis Association Junior Tennis Tournament, a national event which attracts 200+ junior players from all over the country and sometimes from overseas too.

When Jo first arrived back “home” she wrote to Champneys offering her dance exercise skills and was immediately taken on. Filling another need, she taught dance at Misboume School and evening classes for disabled adults as well as LEA classes at the Middle School in Prestwood. Jo then started another extremely successful Health and Beauty Exercise Class on Tuesday mornings in Wendover Memorial Hall. The League of Health and Beauty also used her to train teachers in the London Area. Jo took over a class in High Wycombe and taught music and movement at Little Acorns Kindergarten.

After 14 years of class preparation and planning, Jo decided to branch out into another area which had always interested her – beauty therapy. Once she had handed her classes in Wendover and High Wycombe to qualified teachers, she took a one-year full time beauty course at Aylesbury College. Jo’s first position was part-time at Hartwell House, while continuing part-time studies at Aylesbury College to qualify in aromatherapy and reflexology. She then started work with Yvonne Needham at Scruples in Wendover High Street. She is delighted to be able to walk to work but some of her clients find it difficult to keep appointments because finding a parking space in central Wendover in the middle of the day is so difficult, especially on Thursdays.

Still, Jo thinks herself truly blessed: home for lunch to exercise the dogs and time for adult ballet class in Aston Clinton as well as tennis.