TURNING the pages of her twins’ treasured scrapbook, it is not dinosaurs or Dr Who that Rachel Thompson sees, but a history of their unlikely and unfortunate cancer battles.

Identical in every way, Kai and Ethan were just toddlers when the boys suffered the same cruel blow of both being diagnosed with leukaemia – a year apart.

They each had to endure gruelling chemotherapy, long, anxious hospital appointments and an uncertain future and mum-of-three Rachel suffered every parent’s worst nightmare, twice over.

Yet despite the hardships of the past six years the family, from Stechford, is now emerging into a brighter future as seven-year-old Ethan and Kai are both in remission.

“I feel very lucky to know the boys have come through the disease and are still here,” said Rachel, a 38-year-old support worker for a substance abuse charity.

“No parent will ever want to hear the words, ‘Your child has got cancer’, let alone twice, when it happens to both your children.

“It’s a case of having to move on and it has made me a better person.

“There are times when I feel cross and ask, ‘Why me?’ but anyone can ask that over anything.

‘‘You can only deal with it the best way you can and I have met some wonderful people on the way.”

The boys were born on February 17, 2004.

But it was in September the following year when 18-month-old Ethan was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which saw the toddler having to endure chemotherapy.

Cruelly, a year later in September 2006, doctors at Birmingham Children’s Hospital broke the news that Kai was also suffering with the same disease.

“The first year of chemotherapy for Ethan was very intense but then when that was over we had the same for Kai, so it was very full on,” recalls Rachel, a former law costing officer at a solicitor’s firm.

“When Ethan was diagnosed it was a terrible shock.

“We didn’t leave hospital for the best part of a year and we nearly lost him twice.

‘‘We were told that if we could get past the 12-month mark, the chances of Kai being diagnosed would be considerably less.

“It was almost a year to the day when our world came crashing down and we discovered Kai had it too.