As the IslandEcho team take a well-earned break over the Christmas period, we have lined up a special 12 days of Christmas round-up of the top stories from January to December, recapping the year gone by.
Check back each day for a new story to jog your memory as we lead up to the big day.
Back in January…
Five sets of twins made the national headlines when an Isle of Wight swimming instructor was left amazed after checking her enrollment lists for swimming lessons, when she discovered she had no less than 5 sets of twins in her classes!
Gay Grieve, 53 and who is a twin herself, couldn’t believe that the children had all enrolled separately and by coincidence had all been allocated to Gay’s classes.
Twins Lilly and Poppy Dutton, 6, Isobel and Rebecca Green, 6, Ashley and Lewis Cooper, 9, Charlotte and Lillian Stafford, 3 and Max and Moses Cowley, 3 all took up swimming lessons at West Wight Sports Centre, Freshwater.
Gay, who has been teaching swimming at the sports centre for over 20 years said at the time:
“I occasionally get to teach twins, but often they are of a different ability so are split up into different groups. I’ve never known so many twins learning to swim all at the same time and for them to all be in my groups is quite incredible!”
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Meanwhile, swimmers braved the ice cold waters in Sandown Bay for the New Year’s Day swim which saw crowds of people gather as around 30 swimmers ran into the sea beside Sandown Pier.
