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18. 11. 09. - 15:00

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18. 11. 09. - 15:00

Walking tall: the back to front twins

Courageous twin sisters born with their feet back to front are to be cured by surgeons after crawling to school and back for four years.

Qian and Jia Yang - both 12 - were so determined to be treated like normal girls that they persuaded their parents to let them go to the local school in Xinhua, southern China.

The journey - a five minute walk for other pupils - takes the back to front twins a painful hour of crawling and pulling themselves inch by inch to their classroom.

Mum Cao Yao'e said: "My husband and I could not afford the cost of the surgery to correct their feet - but they were so desperate to go to school that they begged us to allow them to crawl there."

Qian explained: "People offered to help us and take us to school but we wanted to prove to others that we can live and study like normal people."

But now fellow pupils - inspired by their courage - have raised the 10,000 GBP needed for operations to turn the sisters' feet the right way round.

"I have had so many sleepless nights worrying about what the future holds for my girls and I'm so happy now that the money has been raised to help them," said their mum.

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