A pair of identical twins have celebrated their 99th birthday.

Almost every year, Grace Hodgson from Christleton marks her special day with her twin Anne Clegg, but this year, as the sisters live more than 100 miles apart and both suffer from dementia, they weren’t able to spend their birthday with each other.

Instead, Grace celebrated with close family members, a cake and balloons, while in the pair’s hometown of Newcastle upon Tyne, Anne was having a similar celebration.

Grace’s daughter Margaret Brown, 68, said: “I moved to Chester with my husband’s job in 1987 and eight years ago, the day after her 91st birthday, Mum decided to move here to be closer to us, and got a lovely little place at Dixons Almshouses in Christleton.

“It meant leaving her twin, but in the first few years after she moved, we took her up to see her sister every birthday and always at Christmas, and Auntie Anne regularly visited Chester.

“Recently, we haven’t been able to do that because of their dementia, and Mum finds it a bit confusing to go back to her home town,” added Margaret.

Grace and Anne were born on April 14, 1915 and grew up in Newcastle in a family of seven.

Anne was just two minutes older than Grace and, as children, the pair were inseparable, often playing pranks on their teachers by swapping places.

At 14, they got their first job working together in the handbag department of the main city Co-Op store in Newcastle before meeting their husbands.

Both had very happy marriages which produced four children each, but are now both widowed.

Margaret told The Chronicle: “My elder brother Wilfred turns 80 next February and Mum never forgets to send him a card. There can’t be many 80-year-olds who still get a card from their mum every year!

“The twins and their brother Freddie are the only ones still left in their family. He is 89 and always signs their birthday cards ‘from your little brother!’”

Margaret added: “The twin gene must run in our family, as we recently welcomed two identical twin great nieces, and Mum and Auntie Anne love that!

“Although they live apart, the link between twins is so strong that even though their dementia makes them very forgetful, they still always ask after each other.

“They miss each other very much and I’m determined they’ll have another birthday together.”