It can be quite easy to become a cynical old hack when you have been in journalism for a number of years, writes David Burrows.

Some days it seems there are no new news stories, just different versions of ones you’ve heard before.

But this week we truly entered unchartered waters with the birth of conjoined twins from the county, the daughters of Aled and Laura Williams, of Harlescott, Shrewsbury.

It’s very rare that you come across a story that not one single person in the newsroom has any experience in dealing with.

But that’s what we were faced with. We had no idea how the whole thing would play out.

Would the hospitals involved play along because of the intense media interest or would they be prevented from doing so because of patient confidentiality issues?

We simply had no clue. Something which became evident when my colleague said something along the lines of: “If it’s anything like when it happened on Holby City, the hospital will give press conferences all the time.”

I can report that it is nothing like Holby City. In the real world, stories like this are grabbed by the big boys on the nationals, usually resulting in a wall of silence for the rest of us.

This is where local knowledge is so important and I think our reporters did a first class job of getting around the obstacles to deliver, no pun intended, excellent coverage.

And now we sit and wait to see what happens next. At the time of writing this, all the signs for the twins – named Hope and Faith – seem positive.

Somehow it seems fitting that people’s attention is focussed on these two little girls in the run-up to Christmas. With all the gloom around in the lead-in to this festive season, many people have taken the time out to send their best wishes to the twins and their parents via this website.

A successful operation to separate the girls would be the perfect give for many people, it seems.