TWINS BORN YEARS APART

After suffering multiple miscarriages, Jennie Hill, 45, found joy twice over

- ASHLEIGH PAGE, FINLEY MACKENZIE

As my daughter Harper and my son Liam take it in turns to go down the slide, they both look over at me and wave. ‘Mummy, watch us,’ they shout in unison. As I watch on proudly from the park bench, alongside my husband John, it’s hard to believe that we finally have the children we dreamt about for so long. Both conceived through IVF, our children are medical twins. They share the same brown hair and big grins. They look so alike. But what makes them unique to other twins is that Harper is six and Liam is three - they were born almost three years apart. To everyone else, they just look like normal siblings, but John and I know how special they are and the heartache we went through to have them.

John and I first met in 1997 at university. When we graduated we lost touch and married other people. But in May 2014, both divorced, we reconnected through Facebook and just eight weeks after seeing each other again, John proposed. We tied the knot in a tiny ceremony six days after that. It was all very quick but it just felt right. We both wanted a family and I was already 36 so time wasn’t on our side. ‘I struggled with my last partner. I had three miscarriages,’ I’d explained.

I didn’t know why they’d happened and felt like I couldn’t talk about it with many people. It was such a taboo subject. But I’d opened up to John about how hard each miscarriage had been and we’d started trying for a baby straight after our wedding. I fell pregnant almost immediately. My previous pregnancies never made it past 10 weeks, so I was nervous.

And now, less than two months pregnant, I’d lost another baby. I was heartbroken. But John was so supportive and with his encouragement, I went to see my GP.