Hassan and Hussein Benhaffaf, Irish twins who were conjoined at birth before a life-changing surgery, are celebrating their wins at the Disabled Sports England Junior Championships.
The Benhaffaf twins from Co Cork took home six medals and set new personal bests at the DSE National Junior Athletics games in the UK over the weekend.
Rebel Wheelers, a charity group that empowers people with physical disabilities through sports took to Twitter to congratulate the brothers, who are members of the club, with a picture of them beaming and holding their medals.
What better way to get in to the #MondayMotivation mood than seeing Hassan and Hussein return from the DSE National Junior Athletics games in Coventry. Hauling back 1x gold, 3x silver and 2x bronze medals between them, while setting new PB’s in the process! Well done to you both! pic.twitter.com/JudrQiubVW
— Rebel Wheelers Multi-Sport Club (@RebelWheelers) July 4, 2022
Captioning the photo they said, "What better way to get in to the #MondayMotivation mood than seeing Hassan and Hussein return from the DSE National Junior Athletics games in Coventry. Hauling back 1x gold, 3x silver and 2x bronze medals between them, while setting new PB’s in the process! Well done to you both!"
Speaking to CorkBeo, the twins' mother Angie described the weekend as "emotional but beautiful" as their success coincided with the date she found out that they were conjoined.
"The date 2nd July marked 13 years since I found out the boys were conjoined, it was a poignant year for us and we were just emotional on Saturday at the Athletics Game," she said.
"The boys are determined to get into track racing though - they are currently doing really well in the javelin, shot put, and discus. But the boys are just so determined to make sure they get into track racing. It will be a great challenge but they can do it, they are focused, and serious about it."
The Benhaffaf brothers were born joined at the chest to the pelvis - sharing a liver, gut, and bladder- in December 2009. They made global headlines in April 2010 when they were separated following a 14-hour operation with a team of 20 medical staff.
The surgery left the boys with only a leg each and since then they have undergone 52 surgeries and continue to face ongoing health challenges.
However, they thrive on their love for sport and have spoken about their ambition to become Irish Paralympians. This weekend marked their first-ever athletics game outside of Ireland
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