The world is full of beautiful and wonderful things, some so astounding and unreal it can be hard to fathom. Sometimes, this beauty is in the form of a person, in this case, twins. And not just the regular kind, two sets of them! But, there is something incredibly special about these children.
Rare Black and White Twins
Alison Spooner and Dean Durrant are the proud parents of two sets of twins, and what makes them so unique is the fact that both sets, born seven years apart, are black and white. This makes their family the only one in existence with such an occurrence.
Dean, the father, is West Indian. His skin is dark and so is his hair. His partner, Alison, has white skin, blue eyes and red hair. In 2001, when their first set of twin girls was due, they expected mixed-race children. Instead, one baby, Lauren, was born with light skin like her mom, along with her red hair and blue eyes. Her twin sister, Hayleigh, looked like Dean.
Now, twins born different colors are not something new, although it is rare. According to reports citing a geneticist, the odds of twins being born biracial is about 1 in 500,000.
But, what makes this family even more special is that the exact thing happened when the couple had twins again in 2009. As you can imagine, the couple was astounded to have had this incredible occurrence yet again.
Lauren and Hayleigh
When they were 18, the older girls spoke about life as bi-racial twins. Of course, people do not believe that they are in fact what they say they are. The girls have said that people are shocked when they find out.
“Some people can be really rude. They’ll say, ‘You’re lying, you aren’t twins — prove it! So we’ll reel off the same address or pull our passports out. It’s nice to see the shock on people’s faces. When we went to college it was difficult because there were lots of groups of Asian, white and black kids.
“The black group were trying to integrate me and I was like, ‘This is my white twin sister.’
“No one could believe it. People look at us like it’s some kind of miracle. I’m still amazed that we are twins.”
Hayleigh
Defying the Odds
The two younger sisters are no different, which means this family is literally the only one in the world with two sets of bi-racial twins.
“Even non-identical twins aren’t that common. Non-identical twins from mixed parents, of different races, less common still. To have two eggs fertilized and come out different colors, less common still. So, to have it happen twice must be one in millions.”
Dr. Sarah Jarvis of Britain’s Royal College of General Practitioners
The two younger daughters have grown to look more alike as time goes by, unlike their older siblings.