THE parents of Britain’s first quadruplets made up of two sets of identical twin girls say they still find it difficult to tell them apart, two weeks after they were born.

Lisa Kelly, 35, from Billingham, near Stockton, made UK medical history on December 27 when she defied odds of ten million to one by giving birth to two sets of identical twins.

Last night, speaking from the maternity unit at the University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton, she told The Northern Echo: “It is still difficult to tell them apart. We only know by which bed they are in.”

Flanked by her electrical engineer husband, Sean, 34, and her eight-year-old son, Cameron, Mrs Kelly laughed at suggestions that they might have to keep name tags on them at home.

Cameron, who had hoped for a brother, said: “If you muddled them up, I wouldn’t have a clue.”

But gazing on the cots containing Heidi, Annabelle, Hannah and Jessica, Cameron said he was over the moon with his four sisters.

The quads, born after their mother had IVF treatment, are all gaining weight and doing well. Their parents are slowly adjusting to being in the media spotlight after signing an exclusive deal with a national newspaper and several national magazines Mrs Kelly, a nurse, found out she was going to have the unique set of quads seven weeks into her pregnancy.

Despite concerns that they might be born underweight and extremely premature, they were delivered by Caesarean section 31-and-a-half weeks into the pregnancy and all at healthy weights.

Heidi and Annabelle each weighed 3lb 3oz, while Hannah weighed 2lb 11 oz and Jessica weighed 2lb 10oz Mrs Kelly said: “I didn’t expect them to be as big as this.”

Her husband said: “Everybody in the family is just really pleased that they all turned out to be so healthy.”

Mrs Kelly said the quads had many visitors in the first week, but that has been reduced to avoid exposing them to the risk of infection.

The family hope to take the girls home in a fortnight.