A leapling’s journey: Seymour woman’s rare birthday sparks fascination and celebration at 68

Ms Wales was born on February 29, 1956 — a leap year.

“A lot of people say, ‘Oh, how old are you really?’” she said.

“Realistically, the in-between years, you’ve only got one second for a birthday.”

Ms Wales said people were fascinated by her rare birth date.

Leap year birthdays are the rarest of all birthdays worldwide, with only about five million people sharing this birth date.

“A lot of people don’t know why there’s one extra day after every three years,” Ms Wales said.

“It’s because the world is constantly losing time ... it takes three full years to lose a full day, so then the fourth year, you have to add a day.”

Leap years happen because the Earth’s rotation on its axis (day) and its orbit around the sun (year) are not perfectly in line, so adding an extra day syncs the calendar year with the seasons.

Ms Wales said it had always been her dream to bring together people with the same birthday as her, so this year, she was organising a luncheon at Little Stones Cafe in Seymour.

She said she’d planned one a couple of years ago, but her friend, who was born on the 29th, died in a car accident, so she never got the chance to do it.

In preparing for this special day, Ms Wales turned to Facebook and posted a callout for all the “leapers” and “leaplings”.

“I thought ‘well, this year I’ve got to do something’,” she said.

“I’d like to invite anybody that’s in the area or who could come that’s born on the 29th or anybody else with them.

“It’s open to everybody.”

Ms Wales said she was excited to meet people with whom she shared a birthday.

“I love to hear some of the people’s experiences as well because mine wasn’t very nice as a kid,” she said.

“My mother didn’t recognise my birthday ... only every four years.

“But I had older brothers, and they made sure I’ve got something each year.”

Being born on such a rare date comes with downsides where technology is concerned.

“Computers have changed my life for ever,” Ms Wales said.

“I can’t put my real birthday in.

“How it’s impacted me is that you cannot put your real birthday in because the computer doesn’t recognise that ... only once every four years.

“As far as a computer is concerned, I only have a birthday every four years; it doesn’t recognise in-between years.”

She said sometimes she instead put February 28 as her birthday so she did not miss out on deals or anything important that required her birth date.

This year, she is turning 68 (without skipping years).

But in four years, Ms Wales will turn 18 and only has one goal.

“I really do hope I see it (turning 18),” she said.

“I didn’t think I’d see this one.”

Ms Wales has battled breast cancer three times and come out victorious, but as she grows older, she has endured more health complications.

“It’s not easy,” she said.

But as Ms Wales told her surgeon the third time she got breast cancer, she simply didn’t have the time to die yet.

“I wanted to do this (celebrate with other leapers),” she said.

“This is one thing I’ve always wanted.”