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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Ashley Pemberton

Couple born in same hospital just hours apart get married 23 years later

A couple who were born at the same hospital just hours apart have got married 23 years later.

James Barsby and his new wife Amy have lots in common as they are also both twins.

The pair, who spent a "lovely romantic" honeymoon in Slovenia after the wedding, are now both set to embark upon a career as junior doctors at the same NHS Trust in the North West.

Amy said the fact the couple were born on the same day made their relationship "extra special".

James came into the world with his twin brother, Christian, just metres away from future wife Amy, also a twin, who was was born five and a half hours later with her brother William.

Amy (left) with her twin brother William (SWNS)
James (right) with mum Sue and twin Christian (SWNS)

The couple's parents had even met at an antenatal class before the pair were born at Queen's Park Hospital Blackburn in 1995.

Just over two decades later, Amy's mum Judith Gaffney was heavily involved in the wedding preparations held earlier this month.

Despite growing up just a few miles apart in Clitheroe, Lancashire, the lovebirds, now 23, only knew of each other at school.

It was not until in a science class in Year ten they discovered they had real chemistry and began dating.

The pair married at St Peter's Church in Salesbury, Lancashire, just days before James's graduation from Manchester Medical School and Amy's graduation from Lancaster University.

James and Amy Barsby on their wedding day (SWNS)
The pair married at St Peter's Church in Salesbury, Lancashire (SWNS)

They were the third generation of Amy's family to marry there as her parents got married at the church in 1990 and her grandparents wed there in 1965.

Christian was a joint-best man at the wedding with James's other brother Oliver, while Amy's twin William played a vital role in the big day as an usher.

Amy, speaking of how they were born on the same day, said: "It makes it more like it was just meant to be. I wouldn't have it any other way, even if it means I can't have my own birthday.

"Growing up, we've always shared our birthday with our twin brothers, now we share it with each other."

The happy couple at Amy's graduation (SWNS)
Here they are pictured at James's graduation (SWNS)

James proposed two years ago while the couple were on holiday in Lanzarote after secretly arranging with the hotel to find a romantic spot on the beach for dinner.

Amy said: "It was really cute - he did well. He got down on one knee and asked me. There was no way I was going to say no.

"I kind of guessed something was happening when he was leading me to a romantic, secluded spot, but I was very happy.

"The wedding day was just amazing, I thought I'd be nervous but I was not at all.

"We went to Slovenia for a few days for our honeymoon, which was really nice."

James and Amy at their high school prom (SWNS)
They started dating back in 2011 - here they are on their wedding day (SWNS)

She added: "My mum helped a lot with the wedding and is really happy for us - she remembers talking to his family at the antenatal class."

The lovestruck teenagers officially began dating in 2011 and did not let moving away to university affect their relationship.

Amy added: "I was in Lancaster and James was in Manchester. It's only an hour on the train, it was nothing really. Not a weekend went by that we didn't spend together.

"We both applied for medicine degrees, we both got into uni and we both passed. Now we are both starting as junior doctors at the same NHS Trust."

James said: "Everyone says to us 'what are the chances of that?'.

"On the first day of school, our parents said to us both 'the other sets of twins will be starting today'. Whenever I saw Amy around school, I thought 'there's that other twin'."

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