Specsavers Dame becomes first female billionaire

Bristol born businesswoman Dame Mary Perkins and her husband Douglas revolutionised the way Britains buy glasses, by making fashionable frames affordable, after the Government relaxed advertising regulations in 1984.
The success of this has created a £1.15bn family fortune and has boosted their Sunday Times Rich List position from 73 to 56.
Despite her fortune Dame Mary hasn’t succumbed to the life of an average billionaire. She shuns the limelight and enjoys ordinary pastimes including choral singing and walking holidays. She once said, “There is only a certain amount you can spend, isn’t there?”