Val was born on August 18, 1950 to Alex and May Dick and lived in Hersham with her elder brother Ron and younger brother Kev. She grew up locally and went with them to Rydens School On leaving school she went to work at Hackbridge and Hewittic, where her father worked as a transformer coil winder. In 1971 she met a University student, Lawrence Hepworth, who was completing a "Sandwich" degree course there. They got on well together and eventually married in 1977.They moved to West Molesey. Val was working at Stokvis in Pool Road at the time. Val left work when Gemma was born in 1980, with Mark following in 1983.Both children went to St Barnabas School where Val took a part-time job as a dinner lady. Then, when the school was closed and Gemma and Mark moved to St Thomas More School(Now St Albans),she started at the St Barnabas Playgroup, and worked there for the rest of her life until physically unable due to illness in 2014. She was lucky enough to spend her last week in the care of the Princess Alice Hospice before she passed away.