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♪ ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... nicole: at bdo i feel like a true individual, people value me for me, they care about what i want, my needs, my career path, i matter here. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" (squawking). ibrahima: my daughters are very different. marieme is very quiet, very reserved, introverted personality. marieme: ndeye. ibrahima: it's completely different with ndeye.

she's very independent. you share with your sister? she want to be in charge of everything. to have conjoined twins, as a parent, you have something that you didn't expect. something that you never imagined. i would not pretend that it is easy, it is not. but it's a huge privilege, a huge blessing. you feel lucky to witness this constant battle for life. ♪ ♪ narrator: at mount stuart primary school in cardiff bay, marieme and ndeye are celebrating a special milestone. woman: happy birthday! woman 2: hi! woman 3: birthday girls! woman: birthday girls! hello! woman 2: hi! woman: how are you? woman 2: good morning! woman: hiya!

woman 2: have you got new hair? (laughter). woman: who's seven today? ndeye: me! woman 2: no way! woman: seven! what time were they up this morning? ibrahima: oh, 4:00 in the morning. 4:00. woman: oh, were they? ibrahima: can you imagine, 4:00? woman: oh my gosh, ibrahima! ibrahima: "are we seven?" i said, "yeah, you are!" from my room. (laughter). ibrahima: yeah. woman: aw, big day, isn't it? ibrahima: yeah, what a big number. teacher: could i hear it's somebody's birthday today? who's birthday is it? all: ndeye and marieme. teacher: ndeye and marieme's. well, did you know what? we've got a big surprise for them. should we find out what it is? child: sweet. teacher: should we? anna: happy birthday! all: anna! anna! anna: hi everyone! how are you all? child: anna! anna: i'm so excited too! how are you, girls? ndeye: good! anna: happy birthday! helen: today is a big milestone for marieme and ndeye,

they're hitting seven. it's huge, it's huge for all of us, um, and it's, it's a celebration of where we are with them really. we have organized today some special things. woman: close your eyes. helen: one of our members of staff here has made the most beautiful cake. marieme: there's a cat. woman: yes! woman 2: there is a cat. helen: dad's coming and we've just got a little bit of a celebration going on. ♪ happy birthday dear marieme and ndeye ♪ ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ anna: hip, hip. all: hooray! anna: hip, hip. all: hooray! narrator: this is a birthday ibrahima had been told his daughters would never reach. seven years ago, he was living in senegal's capital, dakar. the family were expecting another baby. life was about to change forever.

ibrahima: they took baby in the blanket and they went out. i asked if everything is okay. they told me, "yeah, that's fine. we'll come to you." they asked me if i was aware of they were twins. i said, "no, we are not expecting twins." and they told me, "but there is a problem." they told me, "yeah, just to let you know that they are conjoined." i read about conjoined twins but it's just for other people, not for you, not... this is not gonna happen to you. you're completely knocked down. narrator: doctors didn't expect the girls to live more than a few days. ibrahima: i was preparing myself just to lose them very quickly. the only thing, um, that we could do is just to be beside them and not let them walk alone through this journey.

(beeping). the two weeks passed, the four weeks passed, we started building hope, building hope. and then we could so very, see very clearly that, um, we are going to deal with warriors, they hang on to life, they hang on to life. i've been searching all over the world, contacting many hospitals, even begging for appointments. that's how i heard about great ormond street hospital. so, i send the medical records of the girls and then they told me that, um, if there was a possibility to do the separation. we came here in 2017. i came with a lot of hope, maybe too much, maybe too much hope at the time. narrator: tests at great ormond street hospital found that marieme's heart was too weak

to survive the operation. (heart beating). doctor: if you look at her and her sweating... ibrahima: mm-hmm. doctor: it's because of her leaky valve, um. and the fact that her heart is struggling compared to that of her sister. ibrahima: yeah. doctor: um... the, the difficulty is that if we, were we to... although the hearts are separate, were we to try and separate them, then the, she would not survive separation. ibrahima: okay. narrator: at the time, there were fears that without operating, neither of the girls may live for long. but separation might give ndeye a better chance of survival. ibrahima was left with an impossible decision. ibrahima: at this point, it's just killing one of my child for another. it's as easy as that. this is something i can't do. i can't, i can't allow myself to choose who will

live who will die, no. narrator: it was agreed, marieme and ndeye would stay conjoined and they would remain in the uk for medical care. the girls' mum returned to senegal to look after their other children. while ibrahima, marieme, and ndeye made cardiff their new home. ibrahima: yay... (laughter). ibrahima: ready, steady... go! woman: yay! narrator: despite all expectations, day by day the girls grew stronger. ibrahima: i never expected one. so, i had one, two, three. woman: look at that! ibrahima: it's showing whatever the complexity of your task, you can make it.

narrator: now aged seven, marieme and ndeye continue to defy the odds. as the twins grow older and their needs change, ibrahima is devoting his life to their care. ibrahima: not being able to go back home again, it was, um, very, very, very difficult because you had the rest of your family back home, you had your job back home. you lose your home because you're no longer paying. you lose your job because you're no longer able to be there. at the time, i was, um, managing director and, um, it's just to switch to the unknown. am i clean? marieme: no, not yet. ibrahima: i didn't think too much, i just followed my heart. you just say, "okay, this is my parental responsibility to make sure they will have somebody who will be here

for them, that will be your life purpose." marieme: all done. ibrahima: all done. thank you. narrator: the girls' health needs to be monitored regularly. today, the family is getting ready for another hospital checkup. ndeye: daddy, why are we going to hospital? ibrahima: they're gonna see if you have grown a lot. okay, ready? ndeye: yeah! ibrahima: let's go. ndeye: ready, yeah! (both yelling). ibrahima: yeah, let's go. man: how many times do you reckon you've been here? ibrahima: i don't think i could, i can tell. between the emergency admissions, um, routine appointments, checks, scans. yeah, a lot of time.

many, many times. let dr. body listen to your heart. dr. body: is that okay? who am i going to do first? you said it was okay. you. oh, how did i guess? thanks! (heart beating). yeah. oh, i can definitely hear it. i can hear it's really strong, that's good, isn't it? should we listen to yours as well? yeah. (heart beating). yours is special, yours has got an extra whooshy noise. i think i was the first pediatrician who met ibrahima and the girls when they arrived in cardiff. i think a bit like everyone, it's a bit of an, a novel excitement and then a bit of realization that this is something i've only ever read about in textbooks. and here are two gorgeous girls and then a worried father who's been thrown into a world of science, medicine, hospitals, that he wasn't expecting, and none of us were expecting. and i think we really have learned together.

pop it under the t-shirt then. they've got one pair of legs between them and one pelvis. moving up through their abdomen, they've got a lot of different organs. so we've got bowels, and we've got urinary system. and then we move up and they've got two totally separate spinal cords with all their nerves yet somehow they completely coordinate and they don't have to tell each other how to move an arm or how to move a leg, it just works. and again, two separate hearts but we know they're linked and they can't survive on their own. dr. evans: when we first met them, you know, they were babies, there was a lot of uncertainty. could they be separated? or, you know, what might happen? and having worked through those, um, very, very, you know, difficult conversations. and now, we've just had two years where we've hardly seen them in hospital. dr. body: i think though, with no doubt, their life is going to be complex. i think we've still got serious risks of infection and serious risks due to their hearts. i think that is probably the area where

they're going to struggle. dr. evans: if you develop an infection in your, uh, bladder or your kidneys and you can't get on top of it with antibiotics, there is a risk of that evolving into sepsis. so, that's a real risk for them. and also, heart failure. how are we getting on with drinking these days? i saw you had a really smart drinking bottle. ibrahima: yeah. dr. evans: he's completely aware of what might happen. but it's getting a balance between being prepared, being realistic, but not talking about that all the time. ibrahima: when you are told since the beginning there is no future, you live for the present. i know, any time, any minute, any second, i can receive a call from school, something very bad would happen. but as i say to many people, we're gonna live. how long? i don't know, i don't want to know now. i don't want to know.

i just concentrate on the present and making every day a surprise and celebrating life. one of my greatest hopes has been to see the girls go to mainstream school. it's a way for me to show that they're part of society, they're part of society. woman: should we do the register? helen: dad applied for them to come to nursery here 'cause we were local. we were frightened and we were scared that we'd get it wrong. but we knew that we could build a good relationship with dad, and that if we could build the relationship with dad that we could make it work. child: hi, marieme and ndeye. ndeye: hi. child 2: happy birthday, ndeye! all: happy birthday! woman: can the girls come and play in the puppet show with you? all: yeah! (screams). woman: what is it ndeye? ndeye: there's a snake! woman 2: oh, it's okay. ndeye: i have an idea, wait.

helen: they are a part of a year two class, just like anybody else. but they also have two people who help them. woman: come on girls. should we go out to play? marieme: what do you want to do? woman: who are we going to play with? let's go and see. ndeye: i'm, i'm, marie i'm finding the, marie i'm finding the happy birthday spider for you. both: happy birthday spider? ndeye: for you. marie: for me? oh, please don't. not a spider. i don't think there's any spider here. ndeye: oh, i see it! marie: you see it there? ndeye: let me get it with my wand. ibrahima: this is what i wanted, for them to have a normal life. to see kids, to play with them, to laugh with them, to make friends. to develop as individuals. they don't have to hide from anybody. woman: you're too excited. woman 2: you're too excited to do anything today. woman: what colors are you going to do your giraffe, ndeye?

ndeye: pink. woman: which color are you going to use? helen: like all seven year old's, they have separate friends. if you said to them, "who are your friends?" they would give you a long list of people. woman: what would you like to do together? child: hide and seek. child 2: hide and seek! child: hide and seek and tag. helen: the wonderful thing about children is they don't see disability, they only see their friend. child: they're both so pretty. child 2: um, i like cats too and they like cats. child 3: that's why they're stuck together because they really love each other. child 4: and we always do girl power with them. child 5: put your hand in now. put it in. all: girl power! child 6: marieme, you like it? child 7: i like your glasses, ndeye. ibrahima: they're lucky to be part of this community. i couldn't expect better.

i couldn't. clothing is one of the things i am, i'm struggling a lot. sue: when i first heard about the girls, i thought, "what an amazing project to be involved in." to be able to give them something that they can't normally get. go into a store, pick clothes, and that excitement and everything that that, you know, sort of brings with it. so, we're going to make some clothes today for you. what's your favorite thing? ndeye: unicorn. sue: unicorn? ndeye: yeah. sue: what else? favorite colors? marieme: cat. sue: a cat? ndeye: and, and i only want, i want pink. sue: pink, okay! marieme: and i like red. sue: pinks, reds, cats, and unicorns. fingers crossed, let's see what we've got. ready? yeah? ibrahima: yeah. sue: there you go. you go and have a look. ibrahima: yay. ndeye: wow! sue: lots of bright colors. ndeye: and shoes and sun hats. sue: glasses and hats.

(gasps). ndeye: look! look. sue: ah, lots of colors. pretty dress. ndeye: wow! i would like this one and... sue: and this blue one? ndeye: yeah! ibrahima: ndeye likes very pinky, sparkling things. marieme is more very simpler colors. sue: so, do we want same or do we want different? ndeye: different! sue: you want different. ndeye: yeah. sue: okay. ndeye: bye. marieme: go. sue: oh, you want to go now. you want to go back to school? ndeye: yeah. both: cheese! sue: all right. okay, han, here's everything they've selected. dad was explaining how temperatures are an issue for them both. han: mm-hmm. sue: as in, ndeye is always warm... han: okay. sue: and perspires quite a bit. whereas, uh, marieme is quite cold. han: okay. sue: so, i thought we could do a combination here of the t-shirt and the sweatshirt together. han: that would be a really good addition, yeah. (sewing machine whirring).

sue: i know dad is really interested in saying a big thank you to everybody who's been involved and supported him as far as medically and education-wise. so, i think if we can put on a, a bit of a show, it'll be great fun for everybody. (birds chirping). narrator: one of the main goals for the girls is for them to stand and eventually, walk. woman: they have a standing frame 'cause if you've been in a wheelchair all your life, you're not used to being upright. so, we're training them to get some strength in their legs. ndeye: help me. woman: what does everybody say when you're in the standing frame, girls? ndeye: oh, you look tall! marieme: hi, friends, family. it's nice to meet you. woman: all ready for take-off girls? ndeye: yeah. i'm flying!

woman 2: coming down. they're doing really well. it's a different sensation for them standing there, different point of gravity. but we go for little ones around the, the class and the school, and they get a chocolate biscuit at the end of it, so, uh, that's some encouragement for them. (screaming). woman: come say hi to all your friends. say, "hi! we're here." (screaming). woman: which way is it? ready? woman 2: is it tickly? our target for standing in the frame is one hour daily, at the moment. so, we're managing about 20 minutes. woman: should we put some more right here, marieme? it will probably take a long time and this is just the start of everything we're doing for them. it's begun to work, but i know dad is particularly keen, and something he really wants to see for the future. how are you feeling? ndeye: but the standing frame is too, so hard. woman: is it? ndeye: look, it's so hard. woman 2: you did really well today though. ndeye: it's so hard. woman 2: you'll be going in your chair now, all right?

woman: fix your legs, sweetheart. ibrahima: this is showing you how resilient they are. they have achieved things that nobody never thought they would. they're fighters and proving everybody wrong. i would not pretend that it is easy, it is not. but i think everybody's playing their part too. the social services, they put plan now for me overnight to have a sort of respite. ndeye: come on! take it away. ♪ fire! ♪ ♪ this girl is on fire ♪ carer: yes! ndeye: no, not yet! carer: let you try, right? ndeye: yeah! narrator: two carers stay over every night to give ibrahima a chance to rest and to make sure the girls sleep safely.

ibrahima: uh, fluttershy.