Published Friday, 27 August 2010
Isabella and Lola Koupparis will turn one on Sunday - a birthday mother Pauline once feared they would not see.
The baby girls were mauled by a fox nearly three months ago, as they slept in their separate cots in the upstairs bedroom of their East London home.
Pauline and father Nick had put the twins to bed after a barbecue supper on 5 June.
Leftover food was cooling on the kitchen table and they had left the patio doors open as it was a warm evening.
Just before 10pm they heard one of the twins crying through the baby monitor and Pauline went upstairs and found the twins bleeding and a fox at the end of Lola's cot.
The couple said the animal stood its ground and only ran off when Mr Koupparis threw something at it as he held Isabella in his arms, blood seeping through her sleepsuit.
Both babies had to undergo surgery after suffering arm and facial injuries.
Although the twins still bear the scars of the horrific attack, they have made an exceptional recovery.
"It's incredible", Pauline told UTV during her first trip back to Newcastle since the ordeal.
"Babies are so resilient, little fighters and you know they're strong and capable. They're as happy, you'd think nothing has happened to them".
The couple now want to move from what they once described as their "dream home" in East London.
"I feel violated, I don't feel safe. I don't feel like I can protect my children. We haven't seen foxes but our neighbours have and they have only recently told us. And I know they say it's a one in a million occurrence but who's to say it wouldn't happen again?"
Some people openly doubted the story about how the twins came to be injured and Pauline says the claims deeply hurt the family.
The couple, who also have a five-year-old son Max, say they have not owned a pet cat or dog for almost five years and did not encourage foxes to visit their garden.
"It was only when I brought Lola home after the first week, the headline at that time was: 'It wasn't even a fox'. Initially it really wounded us, knocked us for six, I couldn't understand it", Pauline told UTV.
The attack has also had a huge impact on the extended family.
"The whole family is devastated. There was nothing we could do. I couldn't get away until the Wednesday. It was just so hard," the twins' grand-mother, Linda McKelvey, said. "It was awful; they kept hounding her day and night. It was wild."
Pauline says it was the support she got not just from her family and friends but also from people across Northern Ireland, which helped her through.
"It meant so much to us, to have a bad day and someone to send you a nice card, and you think: 'That was nice.'"