Mary Perkins running PR. She has admitted donning disguises and visiting Specsavers stores, posing as a customer. Perkins was made an honorary fellow of Cardiff University in 2005. The same year she received the "Rotary International Community and Vocational Service Award" for her services to charity and in 2006 won the inaugural Spirit of everywoman Award. Perkins was the first female optician in the UK to receive the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2007. The accolade was also in recognition of her other charitable work, including the Guernsey annual "Specsavers Liberation Tea Dance for
Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center chairman of the East Baton Rouge Parish Medical Society Cancer Committee, for help reaching this goal. Together they formed the Cancer, Radiation and Research Foundation. In 1968 the Foundation held a capital campaign, which was capped by a major gift from philanthropist Paul D. Perkins whose daughter—Mary Bird—had recently died. The Foundation board expressed its gratitude by naming the Center after her. Mary Bird Perkins Radiation Treatment Center opened in Baton Rouge in 1971, Hammond in 1988 and Covington in 1998. In 1994, ground was broken for the six-floor expansion at the Essen Lane location. In 2004 MBP partnered with