A PROUD grandmother is celebrating after her two daughters - one of whom survived the September 11 terrorist attacks - delivered healthy babies.

Joan Sutherland's daughters Gillian Cruse, 32, who lives in Long Island, near New York, and Kirsty Bowden, 30, of Chester-le-Street, were both originally due to give birth on January 17.

The coincidence was the second quirk of fate for Mrs Cruse, who narrowly survived the 2001 attack on New York's World Trade Centre.

She was working at the nearby One World Financial Centre at the time, and only escaped the disaster because she set out late.

Following the tragedy and the subsequent anthrax scare, Mrs Cruse, who is originally from Durham, and her husband Bobby decided to move away from New York.

She was delighted to discover she was pregnant, hoping the baby would help her recover from her ordeal.

Mrs Cruse was astounded to learn that her sister, with whom she keeps in regular contact via email, was expecting her first child on the same day.

The coincidence left Mrs Sutherland, 57, of Newton Hall, Durham, with the dilemma of which daughter's delivery to attend.

She was able to help both when the births were a week apart, with Kirsty's son Danny arriving on January 14 and Gillian's daughter Alice on January 21.

Mrs Sutherland said: "We knew that Kirsty was likely to be early, although she was not as early as they said.

"I thought that Gillian might be a bit late from the descriptions she gave me, and I almost got it right.

"I was there for Kirsty's delivery and I arrived at Gillian's house on the Sunday night after Alice was born.

"It worked out extremely well and it gave me time to help both out in the early days."

Mrs Sutherland has just returned from Long Island, where she attended Alice's christening.

She said: "Alice is beautiful - she's a delicate-featured little girl with a heart-shaped face. Danny is a big boy and he's now starting to smile.

"I'm absolutely thrilled with the pair of them."

Mrs Sutherland said Gillian was thriving as a mother.

"She is absolutely glowing," she said. "She's revelling in motherhood - they both are."