My dream CAME TRUE

Anna Rees-Eggert had always longed to be a mother, but she was warned it would be close to impossible

-  KAREN EVENNETT

Like most sets of twins, Tristan and Savannah have always known who's the oldest. But Tristan, now seven, isn't just the usual 15 or 30 minutes older than his sister. He was born nearly three months before her. 'Or, to be precise, 11 weeks and six days,' says proud mum Anna Rees-Eggert, 45, from Dorset. Similar in so many ways, and the best of friends, they are in the same class at school and known to everyone as 'the twins' - but their journey into this world was far from straightforward, as Anna explains. In fact, she once feared she would never become a mother.

At just 20, Anna was diagnosed with an 'inconsistent hormone profile' and warned she was in for a bumpy ride if she ever tried to conceive. 'I had always dreamt of having a big family-ideally six children, but at least four - so this was devastating news,' Anna says. 'I was haunted by the image of a woman pushing an empty swing - part of a talk on the impact of childlessness that I'd attended as a student nurse. I knew I could only cope with that outcome if I'd tried everything in my power to become a mum.' Determined to think positively about her future, Anna strove to replace the sad childless swing image with one of herself in the middle of the happy family group she longed for... And, when she was 26 - in a relationship that was not destined to last - she found herself unexpectedly pregnant with her first little miracle - her daughter Sienna, now 18.