Pat Kennedy was born in 1961 at St Mary’s Hospital, Newport, and has lived in the town nearly all her life. She grew up in a council house with two older brothers and a father who mended lorries for the council.

Pat always wanted to be a nurse, but at 16 the pull of a wage won out. Her sister-in-law worked at Ronson’s, and after a week’s work experience Pat started there in 1977, the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.

“Even though I was only 16, I could honestly say I felt like an adult.”

Pat began in the valve department, fitting tiny rubbers and “shimmies” onto the stems where the flame comes out. She settled in “valve to shell”, testing each lighter against a constantly burning “bomb” and turning the flame down with a “fork” and “chimney”.

Leaking lighters sometimes caught fire and went in a sand bucket. Nearly 50 years on, she is confident she could still do it.

“If someone could give me a lighter now, with that valve in and my little fork and chimney, I could still do it.”

Pay days meant a dash to Etam; followed by dancing all night at Barney’s and the Ryde Queen.

Pat was made redundant in 1981 and moved next door to Dixons until her twins were born, then spent 30 years with the NHS.