Twins Muniksha (left) and Madhuriksha Reddy graduate with their Bachelor of Pharmacy degree this month. Photo credit: Rewa Pene
“We have always been in the same class – the same everything – we have quite a close bond.
Madhuriksha and Muniksha Reddy have been on a journey together ever since they were born a few minutes apart 21 years ago. This month they enter another chapter on that journey when they both graduate with a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree.
In fact the twins' journey to become pharmacists has been a family affair. Born in Fiji, their parents, Muni and Renuka Reddy, decided to relocate to New Zealand when their daughters began their senior secondary school studies to help them become familiar with the NCEA system.
The twins studied at Hillcrest High School in Hamilton for their final three years of secondary school before the family, including their younger sister, Madhaviksha (19) shifted to Dunedin.
Upon completing their first year health sciences' studies, Madhuriksha and Muniksha were both accepted into pharmacy.
“We wanted to do something together,” Muniksha says.
“We have always been in the same class – the same everything – we have quite a close bond.
“People think we are best friends, not sisters.”
While the twins are not identical, they spend a lot of time together and in an interview with Pharmacy Today, would often finish each other's responses.
They have both thoroughly enjoyed their studies at the Otago School of Pharmacy. “It's [pharmacy] exciting and it's really rewarding, just the idea of being able to – and knowing – that you can help people,” Muniksha says.
Not a common occurrence to have a set of twins studying at the school, the twins have created some confusion for the university's administration teams. They laugh that with the same birth date and similar names and the same parents, there was some confusion that they were just one person.
Overall however, the pair say it's been a positive experience studying with someone so close to them. “It's been good having someone to study with and motivational as well,” Madhuriksha says.
Article written by Liane Topham-Kindley for Pharmacy Today, December 2016