Birthday bash for festive double act

FORMER Christmas babies Effie Degg and Mary Harrison have enjoyed their first proper birthday party – 50 years after appearing on the front page of The Sentinel.

Having been born on Christmas Day 1959, the twins have always seen their birthday celebrations taken over by the general festivities of December 25.

But with the sisters' half-century approaching, their families decided to do something special for them, and organised a double surprise birthday party.

Effie and Mary thought they were just going out for a meal with their immediate families on Saturday, but instead they were taken by limousine to the party at Longton Workingmen's Club.

Once there they were met by a host of relatives from all over the country, including some they had not seen for more than 30 years.

Effie, of Ricardo Street, Dresden, said: "It was a really nice surprise, very emotional. We hadn't seen our Uncle Arthur and Auntie Dora, from Durham, for 34 years.

"This was the first actual birthday party we've ever had. We thought we were just going out for a meal, but this limousine came to pick us up, and they asked me and Mary to put on blindfolds."

Mary, from Newstead, added: "It was a total surprise. One of the best parts was getting a phone call from our relatives in Australia. It was so nice to see everyone. I was crying loads.

"We have relatives all over the place. We normally have a get-together on Boxing Day, but that's usually just our relatives who live locally."

It has been a long-standing Sentinel tradition to take pictures of newborns on Christmas Day, and the issue from 1959 showed the twins in the arms of their mother Effie Harrison, with proud dad George looking on.

Relatives dug out the old Sentinel issue especially for the party, and also put together a special photo album, telling the twins' life stories.

Effie's daughter Laura, aged 22, said: "It was sort of like a 'This Is Your Life' thing we did for them. There was a lot of crying.

"My mum and auntie have never really been able to celebrate their birthdays before because it's on Christmas Day, so it was nice to be able to do something like this for them.

"We must have had about 60 people at the party. We'd invited their brothers from Scotland, and there were some relatives from Plymouth as well."