More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
Twin sisters Kathleen and Dorothy are as close as ever having spent their lives doing things together.
And now they have achieved the amazing feat of both reaching their milestone 100th birthday.
The remarkable ladies put their longevity down to hard work, healthy living and their Christian faith.
Over the years they have celebrated their 21st, 90th and 99th birthdays side by side.
And now their family are putting on a special bash to mark the identical twins' centenary.
As girls, they grew up in Rochester at a house which their grandmother had built when they were 12. Kathleen Whitehead still lives in the smart six-bedroom property, while Dorothy Sivyer lives in Tunbridge Wells.
Dorothy married Lesley Sivyer and they have three children – Rosie, Margaret and Philip –six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
The sisters went to Rochester Grammar School while their brother Cecil, who died about 12 years ago, went to Rochester Math School.
On leaving, Dorothy went into the NHS working as a radiographer at St Bart's in Rochester, the Royal Free in London, Pembury Hospital and a clinic in Maidstone. During the Second World War she was dispatched to Winchester, Hampshire, to help deal with the wounded troops recovered from the D-Day landings. She worked for the health service until she was 64.
Kathleen had wanted to go to art college, but instead obeyed her father's instructions and went to work for an advertising company in London.
She later took up teaching and worked at Delce Juniors in Rochester and primary schools in Gillingham.
In her latter years, she re-kindled her love of art and today has numerous oil paintings around her home.
During the war, Kathleen – who never married – served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, as a radio plotter stationed in Devon.
Both women have kept fit. Dorothy in her younger years cycled to work and Kathleen liked to walk and tend her garden.
They have also travelled all over the world together, including Canada, Malta, Spain and a Scandinavian cruise.
They share strong links to the Baptist Church. Kathleen is a former deacon and Sunday school teacher at her church in Borstal and Dorothy is a regular member of her place of worship in Tunbridge Wells.
Dorothy's daughter Rosie, 66, who lives in Essex, said: "They have always been close.
"I think the thing they share the most is working hard all of their lives."
"Often they would go out buying clothes separately and discover they had bought the same thing.
"I think the thing they share the most is working hard all of their lives."
The sisters will be celebrating their big day today at a party at the family home in Rochester.
The world record for oldest twins is held by sisters KinNarita and Gin Kanie of Japan who each lived to be at least 107 before Kin's death in 2000. The oldest living twins in the UK are believed to be Alice Sleaford and Mary Taylor, aged 105 years.
