OUR story about “leaplings” - leap year babies born on February 29 - has brought a swift response from Barbara Johnson of Sheffield Road, Wymondham.She writes: “I was born on February 29, 1964, and so celebrated my 11th birthday last Friday.

OUR story about “leaplings” - leap year babies born on February 29 - has brought a swift response from Barbara Johnson of Sheffield Road, Wymondham.

She writes: “I was born on February 29, 1964, and so celebrated my 11th birthday last Friday. My husband, Bob and I treated our family and my best friend to a meal at Number 24 in Wymondham. It was a lovely evening, but nothing could live up to my previous birthday…

“After getting married in Las Vegas on February 26, 2004, my new husband and I drove to the Grand Canyon.

On the route it started to snow and by the next morning the canyon and surrounding area was covered in snow and swirling white mists - very romantic but not quite the views we had been expecting.

“However, on the morning of my '10th birthday', we woke before dawn and saw the sunrise over the Grand Canyon, revealed in its full glory, all the more spectacular for the snow-cleaned air.”

Barbara goes on to say that, apart from her four-yearly “true” birthdays, it never quite felt right celebrating on February 28.

She added: “This was helped by my friends who loved to remind me that it wasn't my “real” birthday!”

“Now, I quite like it. It feels extra-special! And the years fly in-between so it doesn't feel like I have long to wait (unlike when I was a child).”

Barbara, who works in finance at UEA, has two teenage children, Sam and Lucy, and has lived in Wymondham for five years and before that in Mulbarton.