We were secret twins

This is Mercia Dick – the story starts with her. In 1948, in her late 20s, she had two little girls in a home for unmarried mothers. Mercia kept Helen, but Jenny was adopted
Photograph: Courtesy of Helen Edwards and Jenny Lee Smith

Jenny, in about 1950, at Embleton Bay, Northumberland, with her adoptive parents, Sid and Connie Smith. The Smiths were childless when they adopted Jenny and gave her a happy, loving childhood.
Photograph: Courtesy of Helen Edwards and Jenny Lee Smith

Meanwhile, Helen was growing up with Mercia, also in north-east England. Here, they are in the early 1950s, coincidentally at the same place - Embleton Bay, Northumberland - where Jenny had been photographed with Sid and Connie, see previous photograph. Her life was not a happy one. Her stepfather was violent and her mother was depressive.
Photograph: Courtesy of Helen Edwards and Jenny Lee Smith

Helen, aged about three, with Mercia in the early 1950s.
Photograph: Courtesy of Helen Edwards and Jenny Lee Smith

A school photograph of Jenny, aged six.
Photograph: Courtesy of Helen Edwards and Jenny Lee Smith

A school photograph of Helen, aged six.
Photograph: Courtesy of Helen Edwards and Jenny Lee Smith

Jenny grew up to be a champion golfer. Here she is at the top of her game on the Women's Professional Golf Association tour, 1981 Photograph: Public domain

Half a century after she was born, Jenny was reunited with Mercia only once, in 1998, after a long quest to find her birth mother. Here they are on Mercia's doorstep.
Photograph: Courtesy of Helen Edwards and Jenny Lee Smith

Jenny Lee Smith, left, and her twin Helen Edwards in March 2013. Jenny and Helen found each other and finally met in Newcastle in 2007. Mercia had died in 2004 without ever revealing to either of them that she'd had two daughters in 1948. 'She kept all these secrets,' says Helen. 'If only she had told the truth.'
Photograph: Graeme Robertson