A MUM-of-two claims people don’t believe her when she says her children are twins – even though they were born two years apart.
Jorgey McCarthy, four, and Vinney McCarthy, two, were conceived via IVF from the same batch of embryos from their parents – Rachel and Mac.
Despite the two-year age gap, this technically makes the siblings fraternal (non-identical) twins.
After Mac had had a vasectomy years earlier, the couple’s best chance was to conceive through IVF, but were told they couldn’t have it via the NHS.
This was because Mac already had two daughters from a previous relationship.
The couple, from Peterborough, were desperate to have children of their own, so they saved up the funds for private IVF treatment abroad.
Rachel said: “Mac's vasectomy reversal didn't work so we knew that IVF was the only way we would be able to have children.”
After travelling to Spain for treatments last up to a month at a time, the couple were devastated after the first two attempts failed.
But their luck had changed and after 18 months a third cycle was successful and resulted in four embryos being created.
The couple had paid a massive £10,000 for the treatment.
They decided to transfer two of the embryos and then freeze the other two.
Rachel said: “From the first transfer I fell pregnant with twins but at the 12 week scan we found out only one had survived – Jorgey.
“It was hard because I wanted to be happy and excited that one baby had survived but at the same time I was really sad that the other one hadn't - I felt guilty for feeling happy.”
Feeling apprehensive and scared by losing Jorgey’s twin, the couple decided that their final two embryos were their last chance to try and get pregnant.
Having transferred both embryos, a similar story played out and they lost Vinney’s twin too.
They were overjoyed when their son Vinney arrived in June 2019.
Jorgey and Vinney have been inseparable ever since Vinney came bounding into the world and Rachel says she barely notices the age difference between them.
She says they share a twin intuition.
The mum-of-two said: “Two years is quite a difference when they're young so people can't believe it when I say they're twins.”
