Laviai and Lina Nielsen, 21, live in London and are identical twins
Laviai Lina and I have always been the best of friends. We don’t have any other siblings so we clung to each other. I’ve always wanted to be just like her, so whatever phase she went through, I went through it too.
I can’t remember a time when we weren’t doing sport. We both found our passion for running at primary school. Now we are professional athletes in the 400m sprint, although Lina has also started doing 400m hurdles. Inevitably, we do get compared a lot and I think Lina finds it more difficult than I do. Currently I’m the quicker one, so people look at her and ask why we aren’t running similar times, which is crazy as we are separate athletes.
Laviai, left, and Lina are both professional athletes
Competing with each other has strengthened our relationship. Going through all the training and pressure has made us much closer, and other athletes are fascinated by how we manage to compete and train together – I know best friends in the sport who refuse to do this. I think it puts me in a better headspace and relaxes me – having Lina alongside me on the track helps me feel as though I’m at home.
Lina Laviai has always been the faster one and I’m comfortable with that, so there’s no friction between us. When we race together we forget we’re twins until we cross the line – but we always immediately hug each other. It’s great to be able to see somebody who can lift your spirits straight after a hard run.
At the 2015 European Athletics Junior Championships I was going for bronze, but wasn’t well and finished last. Laviai won, and I think she felt worried about celebrating because I was so down, but I told her to have fun to mark her win. I don’t know what would happen if we suddenly became very competitive – we’ve been best friends for ever so it would be weird.
If we weren’t doing athletics, we’d both be following different careers. I am more scientific – I’m studying for a chemistry degree, while Laviai has just taken a year out of her geography studies. But we’d support each other in whatever we wanted to do. When I told Laviai I was switching to hurdles, she said, ‘What’s taken you so long?’ She has always wanted the best for me.
Laviai took silver and Lina bronze in the 400m at the British Athletics indoor team trials in Sheffield earlier this year
We still live at home – growing up, we shared a bedroom – and spend most of our time together. At this year’s Birmingham Grand Prix race, the commentator said, ‘You never see one without the other,’ and it’s true – we are inseparable.
Donna, left, and Nicola aged five, in their school photo, and now, top
Henry, Katie, Charlie and Emma, 1990
Katie and Charlie Boyle, 29, live in London and are fraternal twins
Katie Charlie and I are the second set of twins in our family – we have twin siblings, Henry and Emma, 32. I always have this up my sleeve as a conversation starter. Our mum is incredible: at one point she had four children under the age of four – I have no idea how she did it! Growing up, we were never bored. Our house was always full of people and we all had very fun childhoods.
If you lined up the four of us, it would be quite difficult to correctly guess whose twin is whose. I don’t think Charlie and I look that similar – I look more like Henry – but we have similar mannerisms. When people find out, they usually ask us if Charlie and I can read each other’s minds.
Katie and Charlie Boyle, 29, live in London and are fraternal twins
Our bond got stronger when we were at the same sixth-form college – we were mostly schooled separately before then. We merged friendship groups, and spent lunchtimes with each other. Although we love spending time together, we aren’t like the twins you always see together – we have independent lives. We went to different universities – Charlie to Exeter and me to Bath. It never crossed our minds to follow the same path.
Charlie I think same-sex twins are often likely to be more competitive, but as our skills are in such different places – I work in finance while Katie is a teacher – we are very much our own people. I was a lot more competitive with Henry growing up. I used to copy what he was wearing, and I’d feel as though I’d need to match his high grades.
Katie and I live two minutes away from each other in Southwest London. We see each other fairly regularly, but aren’t in each other’s pockets. As we share friends I’ll often bump into Katie at a party, not knowing she’s going to be there. Katie and I love to host dinner parties together though, and often do this with our respective partners.
Henry, Katie, Charlie and Emma, 1990
I get on well with Katie’s boyfriend, but growing up I took a dislike to a lot of her exes and was the typical protective brother. Katie wasn’t like this with my girlfriends – she always wanted to know who they were and asked to meet them. They were nervous meeting her, but as long as they got on well with her it was fine. As a whole, we’re a tight-knit bunch, so it’s very important to us that our partners get on with everyone in our family.
From top: Tracy, left, and Andy today; skiing in Austria, aged 21, and in matching cardies, aged two
Andy Daly and Tracy Tredoux, 54, live in London and are non-identical
Andy Growing up in South Africa, Tracy and I went to the same school and were best friends. Although I moved to London first, in 1993, and she stayed in South Africa, we spoke on the phone every day. No matter where we are, we will make time to speak to each other daily.
We both ended up becoming lawyers. In 1991 I joined the firm where Tracy worked in South Africa and we were made partners around the same time. However, we were in different departments, so we didn’t see each other at work as much as we’d have liked to. We both married lawyers, too, but I think that’s more to do with the intense nature of the job and the fact that you tend to mainly socialise with other lawyers. We used to spend a lot of our free time going out with our now husbands and friends as a big group.
Andy Daly (right) and Tracy Tredoux (left), 54, live in London and are non-identical
Our mum passed on her interest in healthy eating to us, so I’m not surprised that we both ended up changing career and becoming nutritionists. My daughter Olivia, 16, was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and Tracy’s husband became ill with Lyme disease. We swapped advice on how we could help them through food, which made us wonder whether we could do it as a job.
We both went back to studying together in 2014 at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition in Richmond. When things got hard for me at home and I struggled with the course, Tracy would give me advice and I’d do the same for her.
The twins skiing in Austria, aged 21. ‘People might think it strange that we have such parallel lives, but I think we always knew we would go on to do the same things,’ says Tracy
Andy and Tracy in matching cardies, aged two
We’ve always supported each other. That’s the way we’ve succeeded, because when we’re going through a crisis – such as dealing with health problems in the family – and one of us can’t cope, the other is encouraging. It’s incredible being able to count on each other like that.
Tracy When people ask me what being a twin is like, I tell them it means always having your best friend around you. When I dropped off my daughter Nicola, who is now 18, on her first day of school, I was mortified to realise that she had to be on her own. It makes me feel secure knowing Andy is always there for me.
I emigrated from South Africa in 1997 with Jacques, who is now my husband. There was no doubt that I would live in the same country as Andy, and Jacques knew that – I always wanted to be as close to my twin sister as possible. Now we are both based in Northwest London and our daughters go to the same school; they are good friends.
Jacques was diagnosed with Lyme disease a few years ago, and I began reading and researching about how diet could help. It made me want to switch careers to something nutrition-based, so I enrolled on the same course as Andy. At times Jacques was really ill and I thought about giving up, but Andy encouraged me to persevere.
I’m so proud of us both for completing the course, and we now run our own nutrition practices. We are often asked to give talks on nutrition together and having her there before I make a difficult presentation is very calming.
People might think it strange that we have such parallel lives, but I think we always knew we would go on to do the same things. We’ve always had similar interests and the same approach to life, so it feels right.
sugardoctor.co.uk; tracytredoux.com
Jess Daines and Emily Morshuis, 25, live in Norfolk and London and are non-identical
Jess Some twins like being similar, but while we share a very close bond, we’ve always wanted to do different things. People think that because you’re a twin you’re copies of each other, and you get compared. At school Emily got higher grades and was seen as the ‘intelligent one’, for example, which was difficult at times.
When we went to university – I studied at De Montfort in Leicester and Emily went to Queen Mary in London – being separated for the first time felt strange. However, it gave us space to become our own people, which we appreciated, and we visited each other a lot.
Today, Jess, left and Emily, right. Emily hated them being referred to as ‘the twins’
We’ve never really argued, which a lot of people find surprising. I think our differences help with that – we have our own lives that have been intertwined and that’s really nice.
In July I married my partner Ted, who I’ve known since I was 15. Emily was my maid of honour and I wanted her to feel confident on the day, so I took her style into consideration. She knows Ted well and the pair of us spend a lot of time with Emily and her boyfriend Aaron. Being married hasn’t changed things between us, even though I’ve moved from London back to Norfolk and have a new job with interiors company Birdie Fortescue. Emily and I are at different life stages at the moment but it has never been an issue.
Emily I always hated it when people would call us ‘the twins’ at school in Norfolk. Being a twin wasn’t what I was annoyed about – it was being thought of as not having separate identities. Even when you tell people you’re not an identical twin, they seem to love trying to pick out similarities where they can.
Jess, left, and Emily as teenagers
Though we are both very close, Jess and I play off our differences. She’s a lot more into clothes than I am. Even if you look at pictures of us as children, I was always a bit of a mucky pup while Jess was very neat.
I met my boyfriend Aaron on Tinder and we’ve been together for two years. Jess is looking forward to settling down and starting the next chapter of her life, but Aaron and I are very career-focused at the moment and want to explore the world. Although I didn’t ask Jess for dating advice when I started using the app, she did meet Aaron early on and I sought her approval.
At the moment, we live quite a distance from each other. I live in London where I work for an environmental charity. There was a time when I considered living in Australia. We’ve talked about what would happen if we were to live in different countries and we know it wouldn’t stop us seeing each other – we’d never hamper each other’s dreams.
Jess, above left, and Emily as teenagers and today, far left and right. Emily hated them being referred to as ‘the twins’
Donna Baguley and Nicola Allen, 45, live in Stockport and are identical
Donna We’ve experienced a lot of strange ‘twin phenomena’. Once I had an arm injury from playing netball and came home in a cast to find Nicola complaining about her aching arm. I even felt her labour pains; I was walking around the office clutching my back in agony. We have so many great after-dinner stories.
Two years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer. As soon as I found out I called Nicola. Although she must have been shocked and afraid, she was amazing all the way through my chemotherapy and surgery, accompanying me to hospital. When I started losing my hair, she came straight over with pink prosecco and hair clippers – it made it less frightening.
Donna Baguley (left) and Nicola Allen (right), 45, live in Stockport and are identical
‘Nicola and I have always felt as though we can talk to each other about anything,’ says Donna
We did a 20-mile Pink Ribbonwalk together in May, and raised money for the charity Breast Cancer Care. We called it my ‘victory walk’. I felt as though Nicola had been on the same rollercoaster as me – doing this felt like we’d come through the other side together.
Nicola and I have always felt as though we can talk to each other about anything. Before we had kids, I would stay over at her house every Wednesday night and we’d put the world to rights over a bottle of wine. Hopefully when we are in our 80s we will still be creating happy memories together.
Nicola When Donna rang me to say she had cancer I was devastated. All I wanted to do was help and support her. Losing her was not an option; all I could think was, ‘There’s too much to live for, so she’s not going to go anywhere.’
When she was ill, we’d have nights on our own where she could break down and be honest with me without upsetting her husband or our other siblings. Our dad was fighting cancer at the time, too, and there was a lot of pressure, but we knew we always had each other to talk to in dark moments.
Donna, left, and Nicola aged five, in their school photo
Because we are genetically so close, I was sent for tests too. In December 2015, a mark was found on my scan so I had to go back for further investigations. Donna came with me and when I got the all-clear we punched the air together. It did play on my mind because we are so similar.
There are times as an identical twin where you feel you want to be an individual. But we’ve accepted that we aren’t that different, especially as we’ve got older. Even now, we still buy the same clothes without consulting each other – we even turned up at our 40th birthday party in the same dress but in different colours. I love my brother and other sisters dearly but the bond you have as an identical twin is unbeatable.
Breast Cancer Care is celebrating 25 years of the pink ribbon, a powerful symbol for millions affected by the disease. For care, support and information, call the charity free on 0808 800 6000 or visit breastcancercare.org.uk