Jane Lloyd Francis has donated £15,000 to Lingen Davies from the estate of her late parents Hugh and Jean Lloyd Francis. A further significant donation was also made to refurbish the chemotherapy centre at Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth, near to where the family lived.
Jane explains how a lost family link was rekindled to inspire this wonderful legacy.
There are many different reasons why people choose to leave a legacy, and this is the story of why our family chose to do so and how we were in a position to support Lingen Davies.
It began really when my mother, Jean Lloyd Francis, died at the age of 90 from dementia. As you do, my father and I worked our way through their address book to notify all the contacts, old and new, of her passing.
A few weeks later we received a very sympathetic and thoughtful three-page letter from Caroline Francis, a distant cousin, who as far as I can remember I had never met. As a result, I discovered a whole new family branch with the same surname living close by in Shrewsbury. It was then an obvious progression to meet up. Of course, my father knew of that family, but had lost touch over the years following the death of his own parents. A striking commonality was that both families were still farming, having continued to do so down through the generations.
It was through this welcome reconnection that I came to learn of Lingen Davies Cancer Support and discovered the dedication and commitment that my distant cousins provide with their considerable efforts to raise funds for the charity.
I also learned of their own moving personal experiences with cancer. I have been very inspired by their positivity and warmth, happy to expand my own family connections, and to feel included by them.
My mother Jean trained in agriculture at Llysfasu Agricultural college in the early 1950’s, quite unusual when many young women would be considering secretarial or nursing careers. It’s a testimony to her ability that she then gained a position overseeing the Aberystwyth University dairy herd. Meanwhile, my father Hugh had moved from Manafon in Montgomeryshire, where we all originate from, to farm nearby with his parents.
My parents married in 1956 and began their farming life together on a small mixed holding in Llanfihangel y Creuddyn, near Aberystwyth. Later they moved to Frondeg in Blaenplwyf to farm, again with Emrys and Meter, my father’s parents. Here they ran a successful dairy herd, bottling milk on the farm and delivering to all the local schools, businesses and hospitals. They worked long, hard hours. Following my grandparents’ retirement, Frondeg was sold in a farm auction in 1970.
My father, always a practical man, started to accumulate skills in house building alongside keeping livestock. He quickly gained a good reputation locally and even won awards for some of the projects he worked on, such as re-roofing Llanilar Parish Church. He was always supported by my mother, especially at lambing time, and they took a bold decision to purchase the Abermad Mansion School buildings, formerly the stables.
Throughout the 1970s, they transformed chemistry labs, dormitories and a chapel to living accommodation whenever other building projects were slow. My father worked hard physically until he was 80 years old and kept sheep until his death at 90. He also suffered from cancer during that time, cancer of the parotid gland. He overcame his illness with fierce resilience and determination while also nursing my mother in those later years.
It was their physical labour and wise decision making that allowed my parents to be able to gift money to Lingen Davies Cancer Support together with a significant donation to the newly refurbished Bronglais Hospital chemotherapy unit in Aberystwyth.
It feels to me that this is one of those “meant to be” moments and while I miss both my parents a great deal I am grateful nevertheless to have inherited a new, inspiring, family in Shrewsbury.
Jane Lloyd Francis
Carreg y Fuddau, Machynlleth
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