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Twins won't less blindness stand in their way Monday 20th of February 2012  20 year old identical twin brothers Michael and Dan Smith from Barnet, North London have not let adversity get in their way, despite both being left almost totally blind by a cruel and rare hereditary eye condition. Leber's Optic Neuropathy affects mostly young men and results in visual loss due to degeneration of cells within the optic nerve. Michael lost his sight first. Within just a few weeks, the first year medical student with a glittering future ahead of him, went from having perfect vision to only being able to make out shadowy shapes. Less than a year later, aeronautical engineering student Dan also lost his sight within a few weeks. The twins are not just brothers but best friends too and their common suffering and close bond has helped them get through what must have been a terrible and devastating time. Michael had to give up his dreams of being a doctor and both twins had to adapt their lives, learning Braille and learning how to cope day to day without their vision. But rather than feeling sorry for themselves, they have demonstrated an amazing strength and resilience - Dan is continuing with his degree whilst Michael who is in football training for this year's Paralympic Game, is now studying geography at King's College London and hopes to be a disability lawyer when he graduates. Dan and Michael are also embarking on a 350-mile tandem bike ride from London to Amsterdam in April 2012 hoping to raise £10,000 for Blind in Business, a charity which helps blind and partially sighted people into work. Click here if you'd like to sponsor them in their fabulous efforts. moreSeeing double at the mother toddler group for twins Tuesday 29th of November 2011 If you're lucky enough to live in Swansea , have twins and want to meet and share experiences with other mums of twins, then get along to the Swansea's Children's Centre in Penlan. They've set up a Twins Club to allow twins and their parents double the fun. For the mums and dads it's a great support network with ideas swapped and stories shared and the kids get to enjoy playtime and lunch together while their parents take time out to chat. The club has proved to be popular and is growing all the time. more Twins' Nan does a parachute jump to raise money for surgery to help them walk Tuesday 8th of November 2011 Twins Ayley and Chloe Hirsch (age two and a half) are happy, lively little girls but as they were both born with Cerebral Palsy, are unable to stand or walk alone. Their family are raising funds to send the girls to America for life-changing surgery which will give them the chance to walk and run around just like their friends. The ground breaking surgery, Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy, will cost £80,000 and so everyone has rallied around to help . . . including granny, who at the age of 70 did her first ever parachute jump on Sunday. And she's proved to be a bit of a daredevil too - grinning from ear to ear the whole way down. Maybe the twins get their determination from Nan!! If you want to help the Ayley and Chloe walk, you can make a donation to the fund online. more Jedward to switch on the Christmas lights at Braehead Thursday 3rd of November 2011 Love them or loathe them, no-one can deny that John and Edward Grimes aka Jedward have made their mark on the music scene since their controversial appearance on the X Factor in 2009. Widely known for their blond quiffs and dubious singing talent, they recently finished third in the latest Celebrity Big Brother. We can only assume that the bosses of Glasgow Shopping Centre, Braehead love them, as they've asked the twins to switch on the Christmas lights for the second year in a row. So if you live nearby and have nothing planned for tonight, go along. If you're a fan, you're in for a treat as the twins have promised a preview of their latest single. And you'll get a chance to have a sing along too. Not sure if you'll prefer "Jedward Bells" to the more traditional "Jingle Bells" though. more Twins for Coronation Street's bad girl Tracy Barlow Monday 19th of September 2011  Fans of Corrie are in for a treat - scheming mother-of-one Tracy Barlow is expecting Steve McDonald's twins. They say that twins run in families - but generally it's the mothers side that influences the increase in likelihood in double trouble. So she had no inkling that getting pregnant by Steve (twin of Andy) would result in the patter of four tiny feet. But don't worry. Even the prospect of impending motherhood would not turn her into a nicer person, according to actress Kate Ford, who plays her. The story which airs this week will see Tracy getting cold feet about the pregnancy and will be immensely enjoyable for those who've been through the same ups and downs too. moreTracy and Steve receive shocking news Airs: Thursday 6th October 2011, 20:30 Great Ormond Street doctors seperate conjoined craniopagus twins Monday 19th of September 2011 Twins Rital and Ritag Gaboura, who were born joined at the head were successfully separated by a team of British doctors after a 13-hour operation on 15 August. Despite the chances of surviving this rare condition being put at one in 10 million, the girls are doing well and don't appear to have suffered any neurological complications. Born in Sudan by Caesarian section, they have undergone four operations in all to get to this stage of separation and will face more surgery in the future. The girls' parents, who are both doctors, said: "We are very thankful to be able to look forward to going home with two separate, healthy girls. We are very grateful to all the doctors who volunteered their time and to Facing the World for organising all the logistics and for paying for the surgery." Conjoined twins are very rare - only one in every 2.5 million births - and only 5% of conjoined twins are craniopagus, which means they are fused at the head. Lori and Dori (Reba / George) Schappell are the best known craniophagus twins in the world and are believed to be the oldest surviving too at 50 years of age. more Three sets of twins start school together Monday 22nd of August 2011 There must have been something in the water five years ago up in the Scottish town of Kirriemuir because Whitehills Primary is welcoming not one, not two, but THREE sets of twins into their first year at the start of the 2011-2012 session. Luckily Ailsa and Gregor Troup, Holly and Lucy Shepherd and Jake and Ashleigh Conner are not identical so the poor teacher won't be seeing double. more Twin saves her sister's life in the womb Wednesday 17th of August 2011 When Andrea Goodrich went for her routine 20-week ultrasound scan of her twins, her doctors found a problem. Around one of the girls' hearts was a "strange halo". Not only that, they also discovered a tear in the amniotic sac. She was referred to a London hospital for further tests but worse was to follow. Within two days she had started bleeding - on top of everything else, the placenta was believed to have ruptured. Doctors told Mr and Mrs Goodrich that the twins had no chance of survival, and they waited for what they thought was an inevitable miscarriage. But a miracle happened in the form of healthy twin, Nico, whose placenta was intact. She moved into a low position in the womb, blocked the leaking and stayed there long enough that she and her sister, Kiki, had precious weeks in which to grow and increase their chances of survival. At 30 weeks, Andrea went into labour, had an emergency c-section and although the girls were born small (Nico at 3 pounds, 6 ounces, and Kiki at 3 pounds, 1 ounce) after spending some time in the special care nursery (Nico was only in for six weeks and Kiki for three months), both girls were healthy enough to go home. Even Kiki's heart is fine. Andrea said, "Doctors don’t know what it was they saw on the scan, but her heart has since developed perfectly normally." Unsurprisingly the twins are very close and share a special bond that is sure to grow as they realise just how miraculous they both are. And reassuring too for mums-to-be that sometimes, in the face of overwhelmingly poor odds, miracles do happen. more High achieving twins notch up all 45 Girl Guide badges Thursday 28th of July 2011  15 year old twins, Abby and Bethany Williams, from Gravesend in Kent have achieved the rare feat of a full house of 45 Girl Guide badges - and say sibling rivalry helped them on their way. They mastered a host of excellent life skills including language interpretation, fire safety, personal safety, survival and first aid along with more fun activities like chocolate studies, circus skills, performing arts and party planning. To mark their remarkable achievement, the girls enjoyed a visit to Guide headquarters in Buckingham Palace Road, central London. They have been in the Guiding movement since joining the Rainbows when they were just five years old and this year they were selected to represent London and South East England (LaSER) Girl Guides at the 22nd World Scout Jamboree 2011 in Sweden. Bethany hopes that the communication skills she has been taught will help her on her path to becoming a paramedic and Abby, who was ahead in the number of badges she had at the start particularly enjoyed building bivouacs and sleeping in them while away on camp. moreNot all twins share the same birthday! Monday 13th of June 2011 It's perfectly possible for twins to be born on different days, particularly if the first twin is born close to midnight. That's exactly what just happened to twins, Lily and Charlie, who were born earlier this year at the Borders General Hospital in Melrose, Scotland. Lily was born to Carly McLeod and David Tait just after 11pm on the 19th of April, but her brother Charlie was not born until after the clock struck midnight, meaning he was born on the 20th. Mother Carly told The Scottish Sun, "It's amazing how it worked out in the end. The fact that they have different birthdays makes them more individual." |
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