EIGHTEEN-year-old twin sisters Tara and Leeanne Whaley are about to live apart for the first time in their lives when they set off within the next few days to different universities across the water.

The teenagers, who have just left Enniskillen Collegiate Grammar School, are among the countless students from all across Fermanagh who have left or are about to leave home to start various courses in colleges and universities in the province, the Republic of Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.

The sisters, who successfully passed three A-Levels – both did French and English – are daughters of Junior and Kay Whaley, from Irvinestown Road, in Enniskillen.

Tara, who did History as her third subject, leaves to got to the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology to study international management and French.

Leeanne, whose third subject was Economics, sets off to Aston University in Birmingham to study managerial and administrative studies.

Tara said this will be the first time that they have ever lived apart, although they will only be about two hours away from each other by train

The twins explained that it will give them a chance to develop their own personalities, as when people see them together they tend to think that they are the same.