YOU could be forgiven for seeing double when you visit the little boys and girls at a Suffolk day nursery.

Richard Smith

YOU could be forgiven for seeing double when you visit the little boys and girls at a Suffolk day nursery.

Melton Day Nursery, near Woodbridge, now has five sets of twins on the roll and this can make life a little difficult for owner Nicola Cannon and her staff as they try to distinguish between the young children.

There is one pair of identical twins, three-year-olds Emily and Abigail Roper, but as our pictures show the others are very similar.

Michelle Roper, mother of the identical twins, who works at the nearby Ufford Park Hotel, discovered she was going to have identical girls at a scan in hospital.

She said: “They get on so well with each other and for them they permanently have their best friend round to play.”

Sue Goodyear, mother of Freya and Mara, aged two and a half years, combines a part-time job in Pandora's Box, Thoroughfare, Woodbridge, with looking after a total of four children at her home in Anni Healey Close, Woodbridge.

The twins also go to the Deben Doubles club, Cedar House, Pytches Road, and she said: “The twins' club is a great help because you talk to other mums about equipment, what to buy and what not to buy, and you benefit from being with people in the same situation.

“I was shocked when I knew I was going to have twins, but now I would not change it. They are very special.”

The day nursery is housed in the former Phyllis Memorial Hospital and it was opened 10 years ago by Judy Roper, who was born there.

It is now owned by her daughter, Mrs Cannon, who said: “I am allowed to have 45 children here at a time and I have more than 200 on the roll but it is the first time I have had so many twins.

“We get to know each child's personality so that makes it easier for us to tell the difference. We find the twins know each other so well and they support each other.

“The twins we have are more sociable and confident because of having each other.”

She has two children who are not twins but her brother, James Roper, and his wife Helen have twin boys Max and Alex, born in May.

The twins currently at the day nursery are: John-Terry and William Elcoate; Emily and Abigail Roper; Freya and Mara Goodyear; Zoe and Zara Lawrence, and Jake and Eva Smith.

It is estimated that 1.9% of the world's population is made up of twins with 8% of those being identical twins.