What are the odds? Birthday fluke brings romance for the Chances

Helen Hesling and Adam Chance were both born on April 5, 1980, and their births were announced in the same local paper on the same day.

But the pair did not meet until 20 years later – through a random car journey.

The happy couple, who started dating just a few months after their chance meeting, have been together ever since and are now looking forward to a joint 30th birthday bash on Easter Monday.

Mr Chance, who works for a bookmaker, said: "Once we found out we were born on the same day it really sparked the relationship. It gave us something to talk about and it just went from there.

"We had only met three or four times before we realised about our birthdays – we couldn't believe it."

The couple, who live in Leeds and married in 2008, got to know each other through mutual friends and realised that they shared the same birthday during a car journey.

Mrs Chance, a nurse, said: "To us, it's normal, but everyone else is always amazed when we tell them." She was born at 2.30pm on April 5, 1980 at the former Leeds Maternity Hospital, while her future husband was born just two hours later.

Mr Chance said: "On our birthdays we share the whole day between us. We treat it like Christmas and alternate each year between our parents.

"To stop arguments we decide on an amount of money to spend on each other and try and get presents within that budget though one of us might splurge on the other every now and again. Also, we only have one cake."