Fran has been blind from the birth and at the age of three or four she was found in a sickly state on the doorstep of a house in Newhampton Road, Wolverhampton. 

She was moved from the Black Country to a Sunshine Home for blind children in Southport and she never heard from her family again.

Fran was nursed back to health and eventually came back to the West Midlands. She was educated in Harborne and Edgbaston and in 1939 started work as a machine knitter at the old Wolverhampton, Dudley and Districts Institution for the Blind – now known as the Beacon Centre for the Blind.

Fran became one of the first residents in the Charles Hayward Bungalows when built in 1975. Here Fran met Wilf Atkin, another resident who had been at school with her. After two years they married and had 26 years together. 

After 28 happy years in the bungalow, Fran decided to stay at the Centre's care home, Beacon House, for a week’s trial. ‘I found the atmosphere so friendly and welcoming that I knew that when the time came I would be happy to move here.’ In July 2003, Fran joined Beacon House and continues to live an active life enjoying her hobbies like knitting, playing the piano and singing.

‘I can only speak with gratitude and affection for the people at the Beacon Centre who have cared and supported me over the years,’ she says. ‘Thanks to the Beacon Centre I have led a better life as a blind person than if I had my sight.’