Twins Experience Same Symptoms, But Only 1 Is Diagnosed With Cancer; Doctors Explain Bizarre Phenomenon
Twins have a unique connection. However, a strange thing happened between twins from Edinburgh as both experienced cancer symptoms, but only one was diagnosed with the illness.
Identical Twins Suffer From Same Cancer Symptoms
Sophie Walker from Edinburgh was diagnosed with a Wilm's tumor, a type of kidney cancer, in 2017. She was only ten years old at the time.
In the six years since her diagnosis, she has gone into remission three times but relapsed in December. Throughout this time, Sophie's twin sister, Meghan, has also experienced all the symptoms she has, including stomach and back pain, paleness, and weight loss, Daily Mail reported.
Megan went through a "head-to-toe" MRI scan, which was clear. Her doctors called it a "twin thing."
Their mom, Rebecca Walker, said that following Sophie's diagnosis, Meghan also had all the symptoms. People would also comment on her looks because sometimes she was paler than Sophie.
Rebecca said Megan had undergone all the tests, and the results showed she was healthy. So they found the results surprising.
Sophie underwent chemotherapy and was in remission in 2018. In January 2020, a routine MRI showed something was worrying about her spine.
The COVID pandemic delayed her surgery and three-week radiotherapy. She went into remission in January 2021 and relapsed in December of that year.
She went into remission in November 2022, but a check-up a month later revealed that the results were not good. Rebecca said Sophie has been struggling with health anxiety and depression. Her twin, Megan, is reportedly feeling the same way.
Megan can't reportedly settle if Sophie is not around. They have a big family, and they look out for each other. Megan and Sophie have eight more siblings.
Their siblings look for the younger ones, but Meghan will reportedly stay in the hospital with Sophie until the wee hours of the morning. Meghan stays with Sophie until she's tired and sleepy.
The Walker family is raising funds for Sophie's proton therapy in New York on GoFundMe.
What's a 'Twin Thing'?
According to Rebecca, she was told that what Megan was experiencing since she's completely healthy is a "twin thing." The mother of 10 found it bizarre, noting that she had never heard of identical twins getting sick simultaneously.
Experts dismissed the theory that twins can feel each other's physical struggles. However, they suggested that their strong empathy for each other probably affected Megan's physical reaction to her twin being sick.
According to OHbaby! twins have benefits and drawbacks. Some twins experience a love-hate relationship. However, co-dependency is also another problem.
The twins' closeness can occasionally cause them to rely on one another. Our society's conception of twins as a single entity does not help.
As a result of being referred to as "The Twins" continually, research has shown that young twins frequently perceive themselves as a single entity and define their individual lives by their twinship.
Evidence suggests that this is a bigger issue for identical twins and, to a lesser extent, same-sex fraternal twins than it is for boy-girl twins because we are less prone to confuse boy-girl twins for each other than we do for same-sex twins.
Meanwhile, a study led by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the University of Southern Denmark, and the University of Helsinki also learned that when one twin gets cancer, the other face higher risk. The study was published online in JAMA.
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