JOANNA and Alex Bagwell will enjoy a very special birthday party today, 18 years after they entered the record books as the world’s youngest surviving twins.

The Bagwell twins, from Hampton Gay near Kidlington, were born at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford in 1993, just 23 weeks and four days into the normal 40-week pregnancy.

Weighing just over a pound each, doctors warned parents Barbara now 58, and Julian, 62, that the infants would be lucky to survive.

But survive they did, and in doing so earned themselves a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

Mrs Bagwell said: “We were surprised when we learned they had broken a world record, although we were advised by our doctors not to enter them in the record books until a year after their birth, because we did not know if they would survive.”

The hospital held a 100-day party after their birth, which was seen as key milestone in their battle for life.

Mr Bagwell added: “I believe they held the record for a couple of years before an American set of twins broke it. Even so, it’s quite an achievement.”

The record is held by Kay and Nick Banski who were born in States at 22 weeks and one day.

Eighteen years on, the children have battled serious illness, and almost died on several occasions, but are now planning careers in art and the media – after their special birthday party today.

Joanna, who is taking her A Levels at Rye St Antony Independent School in Headington, said: “I want to go to university to study classical civilisations and eventually I'd like to be a writer. Alex and I are very different people and for us it’s just like being brother and sister, rather than something different.”

Alex, who is at Oxford & Cherwell Valley College, hopes to enter sports media, specialising in disability issues.

Mrs Bagwell said: “They’re miraculous and we’re all so proud of them. We were told to prepare for the worst when the twins were born so early.

“No other twins had survived such early births and the first year of their lives was a rollercoaster of serious illnesses and several times we thought we would lose one or both of them.

“I was beside myself most of the time. We had another daughter, Charlotte, who was only 11 months old, and I think people expected me to go under, but I managed to keep things together thanks to Julian and our doctors.”

She added: “Joanna was in hospital or five and a half months and Alex was in for 15 months. And when they did come home we had oxygen being pumped into every room and I even carried oxygen on my triple buggy.

“In the coming years they also had several operations, Alex mainly to improve his partial sight, but they battled through with a lot of support including the tremendous and continuous support of the JR staff.”

Special guests at the twins’ party, in the garden of the Bagwells’ home to mark their birthday, will be their consultant Kevin Ives and the Susan Hope, widow of former JR consultant, Peter Hope.