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Outlook: Life as a lone identical twin

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David and John Loftus

16/01/2020 GMT

Life as a lone identical twin

BBC World Service - Outlook, Life as a lone identical twin

David Loftus on rebuilding his life after the tragic death of his twin brother

Photographer David Loftus remembers his twin brother John who beat brain cancer only to die later due to a medical error. After he died, David had to rebuild his life without him.

Identical twins David and John Loftus had an idyllic and happy childhood. They were so alike that as toddlers you could hardly tell them apart. They were very close growing up together. But after a cricket injury and subsequent brain scan, they discovered that John had a brain tumour. David struggled but he remained strong for his brother. John did beat the tumour, but contracted meningitis soon afterwards. During his treatment, a medical error left John in a coma. He died a few days later. After his death, David had to rebuild his life alone.  He changed his career and eventually had a family of his own. He tells Emily Webb how he coped with John's death and how a book about his experience, "Diary of a Lone Twin", is his love-letter to his brother.

Oscar Castellino fell in love with science as a child in the foothills of the Himalayas where he would gaze up into the night sky at the stars and planets. After studying physics and working in software he ended up unexpectedly as an opera singer. Still fascinated by space, he offered his services to The Mars Society. They asked him to write an anthem for the red planet, which he did with gusto - titling the song ‘Rise to Mars’.

Ida Davidsen is known in Denmark as ‘The Queen of Open-faced Sandwiches’. Her family business has been running since 1888 and she learned the art of peeling shrimp and piling them high on bread, at a young age. She told Outlook’s Asya Fouks about the many celebrity customers she’s fed, including the Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin who was served a sandwich made in his honour shaped like Sputnik. 

Picture: Identical twins David and John Loftus
Credit: Courtesy of David Loftus

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