The occurrence of black and white twins is considered to be one in a million, but one family in England just gave birth to a second set.

Meet the Hayleigh and Lauren Durrant: Black and White Twins

The BBC has reported that the chance of black and white twins being born is 1 in 500. But parents Dean Durrant and Alison Spooner of England were blessed with two sets of black and white twins.

Dean and Alison’s first set of twins were born in 2001 in Hampshire, England. They had two girls, Hayleigh and Lauren Durrant. And these girls’ appearances surprised everyone right away.

Hayleigh Durrant closely resembled her father, Dean (who is black), with darker skin and hair. But Lauren closely resembled her mother with red hair, blue eyes, and pale white skin.

Sadly, the girls had to field questions right away when they told people they were twins. School mates asked them to prove that they were black and white twins.

Dean told reporters of his two daughters, “Some people can be really rude. They’ll say, ‘You’re lying, you aren’t twins – prove it!’”

At times the black and white twins weren’t accepted by people in the community because of their differing looks. The twins were nearly one-of-a kind.

That is, until their sibling twins were born seven years later.

Lauren and Hayleigh Durrant’s parents decided to have another child, and surprisingly, the parents were again pregnant with twins.

Dear “Daddy”, 

I don’t know your name but Kate called you ‘daddy’ for the entire flight last week and you kindly never corrected her.  In fact, you didn’t even flinch as you could probably tell that she was not confusing you with her own ‘daddy’ but instead making a judgment regarding your level of ‘safety’ for her.  If she calls you ‘daddy’ then you better believe she thinks you are alright.

I sat Kate in the middle seat knowing full well that there would be a stranger sitting next to her for the duration of this flight. I had to make a quick decision, and based on her obsession with opening and closing the window shade, I figured she might be less of a distraction if she sat in the middle.

I watched the entire Temple basketball team board the plane and wondered if one of these giants might sit by Kate. They all moved toward the back. She would have liked that; she would have made some observations that I would have had to deal with, but she would have liked those players.

I watched many grandmotherly women board and hoped for one to take the seat, but they walked on by. For a fleeting moment I thought we might have a free seat beside us, and then you walked up and sat down with your briefcase and your important documents, and I had a vision of Kate pouring her water all over your multi-million dollar contracts or house deeds or whatever it was you held.

The moment you sat down, Kate started to rub your arm. Your jacket was soft and she liked the feel of it. You smiled at her and she said: “Hi, Daddy, that’s my mom.” Then she had you.

You could have shifted uncomfortably in your seat. You could have ignored her. You could have given me that “smile” that I despise because it means, “Manage your child, please.”  You did none of that. You engaged Kate in conversation, and you asked her questions about her Turtles. She could never really answer your questions, but she was so enamored by you that she keep eye contact and joint attention on the items you were asking her about. I watched and smiled. I made a few polite offers to distract her, but you would have none of it.

Kate:  (Upon noticing you had an iPad)  Is dis Daddy’s puduter?

You:  This is my iPad. Would you like to see it?

Kate:  To me??????  (I know she thought you were offering it to her to keep.)

Me: Look with your eyes, Kate.  That is not yours.

Kate: Dat’s nice!

You: (Upon noticing that Kate had an iPad)  I like your computer, too.  It has a nice purple case.

Kate: Daddy wanna be a bad guy? (She offered Shredder to you—and that, my friend, is high praise)

You:  Cool.

The interaction went on and on, and you never once seemed annoyed. She gave you some moments of peace while she played with her Anna and Elsa dolls.  Kind of her to save you from playing Barbies, but I bet you wouldn’t have minded a bit. I bet you have little girls, too.

Not long before we landed, Kate had reached her limit.  She screamed to have her seatbelt off, she screamed for me to open the plane door and she cried repeating, “Plane is cwosed (closed)” over and over.  You tried to redirect her attention to her toys.  She was already too far gone at this point, but the fact that you tried to help your new little friend made me emotional.

In case you are wondering, she was fine the moment we stepped off the plane. Thank you for letting us go ahead of you. She was feeling overwhelmed, and escaping the plane and a big, long hug was all she needed.

So, thank you. Thank you for not making me repeat those awful apologetic sentences that I so often say in public. Thank you for entertaining Kate so much that she had her most successful plane ride yet. And thank you for putting your papers away and playing Turtles with our girl.

Dawn Tyree never really had a childhood. You see, the now 51-year-old mother of two was married to a man 19 years her senior the summer after she finished sixth grade. You read that right, the SIXTH grade. She was already pregnant by the man, and at just 13 years old she became both wife and mother.

Today, she is incensed that this kind of thing is legal in our country. Tyree says her parents encouraged her to start spending time with the 30-year-old man when she was just eleven years old, and that he groomed her and made her his sex abuse victim.

Their marriage, she says, was the “solution” to his abuse and her parents’ allowance of it.

“Marriage covers up the rape, the sex abuse and the child endangerment,” she told TODAY.com. “The marriage saved him from a prison sentence,” she adds, “and essentially put me in a prison.”

At just 14, she gave birth again. Tyree says she now knows that having kids so young put her own life in danger. Children who give birth are much more likely to suffer complications like eclampsia, puerperal endometritis and other infections, according to the World Health Organization.

At 16, afraid her husband would sexually abuse her own children, Tyree escaped her abusive marriage, “without a plan,” she says. Domestic violence shelters wouldn’t take the family because she was a minor, so for a time the young mother had to give custody of her children to their paternal grandparents until she could get housing.

The refusal of married minors by shelters is just another obstacle faced by child brides trying to escape abusive marriages. Another obstacle? The courts. As a minor, Dawn had to wait until she was 18 to finalize her divorce and get custody of her children.

“The courts, even in these grotesque marriages, these egregious acts toward children, favor the adult,” she explains. “My first real job was assembling bicycles at Toys R Us. That is how I paid rent for our one bedroom in a little house.”

With her children long grown, Tyree now fights for other children out there: ones who, like herself, might fall victim to child marriage. In the United States, the legal marital age is left up to the states, and marriage for minors is still legal in 43 of 50 states. Tyree has committed her life to ending the legality of child marriage in this and every country, but her fight is focused here where she lives.

“It’s no longer about me,” she says. “I can remove all of my trauma and show up for the other 13-year-old brides. I’m speaking for those who are silenced — for those who don’t have a voice.”

Tyree knows there are victims of childhood marriage out there who are, as she was, trying to figure out how to escape the living nightmare, and she has a message for them: “There are people out here aware of these circumstances that feel so lonely and isolating,” she says. “We’re fighting for you. Hang in there. Hang on.”