Conjoined twins Annabelle and Isabelle heading home to Co Antrim after separation surgery

Annabelle and Isabelle Bateson were born together to parents Hannah and Dan in May and were joined from the chest to the pelvis and shared a liver, bladder and bowel, one shared fused leg and one leg each.

The family have been sharing regular updates on their social media account of the twins’ journey and on Tuesday evening confirmed the news everyone was hoping for.

Sharing a photo of Annabelle and Isabelle and mum Hannah, dad Dan posted: “These three ladies are coming home.

“Apologies folks for rearranging this week, but they are finally getting home. We had hoped they were coming home last week but it didn’t happen. But my flights booked tomorrow to go and get them.”

The news was greeted with joy by hundreds of followers of the family on social media, with the update liked by more than 3,000 people.

A crowdfunding campaign set up for the family has also so far raised over £22,000, after the story of the twins captured the public’s hearts.

Their story also gained widespread exposure when the couple spoke to ITV’s Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on This Morning following the birth of the twins back in May.

Conjoined twins are extremely rare and only occur on average once in every 250,000 births.

It is estimated that about 70pc of conjoined twins born are likely to be female.