Tiny triplets who had to spend their first days 50 miles apart have finally been reunited.

Hannah, Beth and Katie Almond were separated after being born 15 weeks premature at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton because there were not enough incubators for all of them.

Their mother Gillian, 32, faced a daily nine-hour, 150-mile round trip to visit her babies and feed them.

They were finally brought together again yesterday after Katie arrived at the family home in Lansdowne Place, Worthing, from Kings College Hospital in London.

Hannah, who at 1lb 7oz weighed less than her sisters at birth, came back from Kingston Hospital in Surrey a fortnight ago.

She was joined by Beth, who had been cared for at the Royal Sussex, last Wednesday.

Gillian, a teacher at Shelley Primary School in Horsham, has her hands full with the three babies but is delighted to have them all home at last.

She said: "It's daunting but great to have them all together and back home at last. The first year is going to be hard work. But I'm looking forward to playing with them and taking them for walks every day to the beach.

"Touch wood they haven't all cried at the same time."

Beth, who weighed 1lb 12oz when the girls were born on January 10, is now a healthier 6lb 5oz. Katie has grown from 1lb 14oz to 6lb 9oz and Hannah has reached 5lb 15oz.

Beth and Katie still need extra oxygen because their time on ventilators weakened their lungs.

Gillian's husband, Peter, who works at Invensis in Bognor, has to get up to help with the hour-and-a-half feeding sessions. The couple's 15-month-old son Simon is loving looking after his little sisters.

Gillian said: "He's thrilled to have sisters but doesn't like to have them covered up - he's always pulling their covers off. He's being very gentle and has taken to it like a duck to water."

The family get help from a health visitor and a children's nurse. Two students studying nursing at Northbrook College in Worthing are also to start helping soon.

Gillian said: "It's a great relief to have everybody back home as we've looked forward to being a real family again for ages."