How we met: ‘I tell her things I’ll never tell anyone else – what we have is so special’

‘She’s my soulmate. People always think that’s just for romantic relationships – but we’re proof that it isn’t’ … Hannah and Izzy in Dublin in 2005. Photograph: Supplied image

When Hannah was 16, she loved going to her local under-18s nightclub to dance to alternative music. “In the summer of 1999, I was getting ready to start my BTec in media studies. I was living with my parents in Ipswich, working part-time and having lots of fun going out,” she says.

One night, she spotted Izzy at the club and mistook her for someone she knew. “I approached her and asked if she knew my brother,” she remembers. She said no, but they got chatting and realised they were both enrolled on the same college course. “I was living with my mum and working for a bakery,” says Izzy. “We didn’t have mobile phones at the time, so we never swapped numbers.”