For 95 years they have taken the blame for each other, played the odd prank and turned up at parties in the same clothes. But identical twins Doris Grice and Grace Hancy are still laughing together.

For 95 years they have taken the blame for each other, played the odd prank and turned up at parties in the same clothes.

But identical twins Doris Grice and Grace Hancy are still laughing together.

Celebrating their 95th birthday at Blyford Day Centre in Lowestoft, the sisters recalled almost a century of anecdotes and fooling people by pretending to be each other.

"We've always been muddled up, ever since we were children," said Grace, sipping a birthday sherry. "There's many a time I was smacked as a child for something Doris had done."

"One time we played a trick on my husband," explains Doris. "He thought he could tell us apart because he knew my clothes, so we swapped clothes. He nearly ended up going for Grace, then he caught himself," she laughs.

Grace adds: "And we used to swap name badges at school. But even now people can't tell us apart, often in the morning the warden or a neighbour will say 'morning Doris' and I have to say 'no, no, I'm Grace'."

The sisters were born in Walthamstow, East London in 1912, weighing just 4lb each, and with Doris five minutes ahead of Grace.

In 1921 their family moved to Lowestoft, where they have both lived on and off for the rest of their lives. Today they live in sheltered housing flats above and below each other.

Yesterday the twins said the secret to longevity was eating well and walking everywhere.

"We have always kept active," said Doris. "We walk everywhere, and we always did our own shopping,"

"And we eat a lot of fish," added Grace.

Joining in the celebration yesterday were Doris' three daughters, Mary, June and Linda and Grace's daughter Dorothy.

"We have had a lot of fun celebrating birthdays with them over the years," said June. "On their 80th birthday I had to pick them up for a day out we were planning, but I couldn't tell them where they were going, so they ended up coming out in their slippers," she said.

"Then on their 90th we told them to bring hot water bottles and blankets because they were going up in a hot air balloon. It was only a joke but they went round the other residents borrowing blankets and bottles!

"In the end we hired them a vintage car and took them to Southwold. It was hilarious, they were both waving out the windows like they were the Queen, they loved it.

"It is really wonderful seeing them still celebrating together today, they are both really enjoying themselves," she said.

Centre manager Karen Winram, who helped to organise the celebrations, said: "Their sense of humour is second to none. They are always pulling our legs pretending to be each other, and they normally wear the same clothes - just to confuse us, I think. In fact the only way we can tell them apart is that Grace is harder of hearing, but other than that they are identical."

She added: "It is just a pleasure to do something for them. They are just two lovely, lovely ladies."