Marieme and Ndeye, seven, were not expected to survive for more than a few days after they were born.
Now aged seven, they are thought to be the only growing conjoined twins in Europe."When you are told from the beginning there is no future, you just live for the present," said their dad, Ibrahima.Around half are stillborn, with another third dying within 24 hours of birth.
"The only thing we could do is be beside them and not allow them to walk alone through this journey. We saw very clearly early on that we were dealing with warriors, who hang on to life."Their best chance of survival was believed to be separation. "Not being able to go back home was very difficult because you had the rest of your family and your job back home," said Ibrahima, who is the former managing director of a travel organisation in Senegal.
"They've got one pair of legs between them and one pelvis. Moving up through their abdomen we've got a lot of different organs. We don't know exactly, but we know some bits are shared and they have some individual bits.