TWINS Sophie and Joe Duggan will get to spend Christmas Day with their parents, in the comfort of their family home.

But the picture-perfect scene is a far cry from last year when they spent their first Christmas in hospital because they needed round the clock medical care after being born ten weeks premature.

Parents Nicola Gough and John Duggan say this festive season marks the start of a new chapter in their family's life as they look back 12 months and remember the relief of reaching each milestone in their treasured tots' lives.

Just 27 weeks into the pregnancy, the couple had their first big scare when Miss Gough went to the University Hospital of North Durham with a haemorrhage and was rushed to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, in Newcastle.

"I got as far as the delivery suite then it calmed down, I was monitored in hospital for 24 hours then went home on bed rest for two weeks.

"That was really scary," said the 33-year-old.

She'd been back on her feet just a few days when, at 30 weeks, she had to have an emergency caesarean at James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, and they welcomed the tiny, fragile twins into the world.

Miss Gough, a learning support assistant at St John's School in Bishop Auckland, said: "They weren't due until January 22, 2016 but they were born on November 16, 2015 – 37 weeks had been the aim so they were very early.

"They were just tiny."

Sophie weighed 3lb 5oz and Joe was just 2lb 11oz and had a collapsed lung.

Whilst their mother was able to go home to Westerton village, near Bishop Auckland, after a week, they needed help to breath, feed and keep warm and had to stay in James Cook for almost a fortnight then spent another month in Durham.

"The day we first left them at hospital was really hard, you don't expect to leave your babies.

"We would not go until late at night and were back there before they woke up every day, we'd ring hospital to speak to the nurses that were looking after them through the night," she said.

Mr Duggan, a 30-year-old plumbing lecturer at Newcastle College, added: "We wanted them home but understood it was for the best that they were in hospital."

Last Christmas morning the couple spent a few hours with their babies before leaving to have dinner with family and returning to spend their first night all under one roof in the neonatal ward.

"Our first night all together ended up being Christmas night, in a hospital room.

"It was nice to be together but a million miles from this year," said Miss Gough.

The pair finally made it home on Boxing Day, 2015 when both weighed 4lb 13 oz.

Joe has had to overcome some health problems but they have continued to grow stronger and healthier and are now both doing well.

This year the festive season has been full of children's parties and Christmas Day will be spent in their new family home at Burton Woods, Spennymoor.

Mr Duggan said: "We just feel content and happy this year, to have a bit of stability and to be together without the worry.

"When we think back to the milestones all the big times- Joe having an operation for a collapsed lung, them coming off ventilators and feeding okay- are around Christmas so this year is so different to last time, it feels good.

"We're so grateful for the care they had at James Cook and Durham, both hospitals were brilliant and we'd not be here without them."

The couple, and Miss Gough's brother Andrew, ran the Great North Run to raise £500 for the neonatal unit at James Cook and they have revisited Durham several times to say thanks to medics.