Catherine (left) and Gemma (right) at the age of 10

Once they started school - on the same day - in the same class - they did EVERYTHING together. They went to dance class, gymnastics, swimming lessons, skating lessons and learnt to ride. They even went so far as to have MUMPS together! They joined Brownies (and both became Sixers) and went on holiday together, to Amsterdam and for a wonderfully memorable Easter week in South Wales, where we stayed on a working sheep farm; they brought in the ducks, bottle-fed the lambs, and even saw lambs being born.

Then, one summer, they went for a week's lessons in basic kayak canoeing, and the rest, as they say, is history.....