A HAMPSHIRE couple are determined to go ahead with the birth of their Siamese twins against medical advice.

Lisa Chamberlain, 25, had a scan last week which showed her embryo had two heads and one body – making them rare dicephalus twins.

The staunch Catholic said doctors advised her to undergo an abortion but this was ruled out after talking over the matter with husband Mike.

The twins were diagnosed after the former RSPCA worker was taken into St Mary's Hospital in Portsmouth with back pain. She had fallen pregnant on December 18.

After the scan results appeared, Mrs Chamberlain said doctors and nurses ''kept asking each other if they were babies who were close together - or 'something else'.

''Then the emergency obstetrician was called and he took over. He said my babies only had one body and were joined very high up.''

Lisa, from Portsmouth, added: ''To me, my twins are a gift from God and we're determined to give them a chance of life.'

''Some might think my twins are strange, but to me they're just special. Everything happens for a reason. Mike and I have spent over seven years trying to have children and we might not get another go.''

The couple hope the babies will follow the example of US Siamese twins Abigail and Brittany Hensel. They were born in March 1990 with shared organs below the navel and are still alive.

The last conjoined twins born in the UK died within a few weeks of each other late last year.

Faith and Hope Williams were born on November 26 and were joined from the breastbone to the top of the navel with a shared liver but separate hearts.

Hope died following surgery to separate them at the beginning of December, and Faith succumbing nearly a month later.