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Tom Hanks films special Toy Story short for former conjoined Irish twins

Published 17:26 20 Apr 2019 BST

Rory Cashin
Tom Hanks films special Toy Story short for former conjoined Irish twins

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The 9-year-old twins have endured serious surgeries and difficult health challenges

Tom Hanks has put together a short Toy Story movie for two of his biggest fans, 9-year-old twin boys, Hassan and Hussein Benhaffaf, after learning of their story. In the movie, we see Hanks match his actions to the theme of Toy Story's much-loved song 'You've Got A Friend In Me', resulting in two Woody dolls both being signed by Tom Story's "Andy", and the other foot being signed by Hanks for each of the boys. They were born as conjoined twins in 2009, and one year later they underwent a successful surgery that separated them, but have had significant health problems in the years since then. Ice cream parlour owner Miceal O’Hurley got in contact with the actor, having built up several connections when he worked in Hollywood, and told him about the two young boys.

"We got the video at 3am and my wife Oksana and I sat up in bed in tears. The thoughtfulness. The kindness. The generosity of spirit of his act was extraordinary," O'Hurley told The Irish Times.

"I think what I love about Tom Hanks is that if he wasn’t a mega star, and he was the local guy in the hardware store, he would still go out of his way to be a decent person. Tom wanted the boys to know that he admires them and wants to be their friend."

Donations can be made to the ongoing care of the twin boys here. Watch the video in full right here:

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