TWIN sisters who live together at a North Yorkshire care home are celebrating their 90th birthday.

Dorothy and Elizabeth Manfield, who have been sharing a bedroom at Sowerby House, near Thirsk, since November 2018, were joined by fellow residents and family to mark the special occasion.

Dorothy is a former secondary school teacher and Elizabeth is a former grade two laboratory technician at a pharmaceutical company which produced penicillin.

Their niece, Anne, visits the home regularly where the pair enjoy a variety of activities such as needlework and crafts, doing jigsaws and knitting – especially making Easter chickens, which is their speciality.

Elizabeth enjoys helping the activities co-ordinator with questions and quiz games and both enjoy a visit to the nearby Sowerby Methodist church for the weekly Friday coffee morning.

Elizabeth said: “We have had a great time celebrating our birthday at Sowerby House. The staff made a special effort to make sure we enjoyed ourselves and we had a great party with our family and friends at the home.

“Throughout our lives we have always been close and continued to do things together, so we knew moving in together would be the right thing to do.”

Katie Hodgson, home manager at Sowerby House, said: “Dorothy and Elizabeth are great characters at Sowerby House. When they first moved in, we thought we might get confused as they are identical twins, but each member of staff made a special effort to get to know them which they much appreciated. Having answered for each other for years they never worried if people did get it wrong.

“We hope they have had a wonderful time celebrating their birthday with us and we’re looking forward to making more memories with the ladies.”

Sowerby House forms part of Larchwood Care and is managed by Healthcare Management Solutions. 83% of Larchwood Care Homes are rated as ‘Good’ or above by the CQC, above the industry average.