Double joy for boys who defied odds

8:00am Friday 15th February 2008

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FOR every mother, their child's first birthday marks the first of many stepping stones but for Lindsay Preece, it was a milestone she once thought her twins Jack and Jacob might never see.

The boys defied the odds to turn one last week after being born more than two months early at Hereford County Hospital.

Lindsay, 28, said: "It was very much touch and go to begin with, they spent three weeks in intensive care and both of them had to be resuscitated when they were born."

Although twins are often expected early, Lindsay and her partner, Ian Joseph, were anxious when she went into labour at just 29 weeks.

At one stage, the babies weighed around just 2lbs each and were transferred to a premature unit in Shrewsbury.

Lindsay, from Shelwick, said: "They were so tiny, I could fit them in my forearms."

But seven weeks later, the boys came home and, after a year of hospital appointments and a heart murmur scare, doctors have now declared them fit and healthy.

The family enjoyed a day at the zoo to celebrate their birthday, bringing their "bumpy" year to an end.

Lindsay said: "The last three or four weeks, they have come on in leaps and bounds. It's just brilliant now, they are like any normal one-year-olds."