Martin English, a floor layer from Houston, was born on 29 February 1988. Although he is now 32, Martin’s official birthday has only come around eight times in his lifetime.

Martin, who has worked with the firm for four years, celebrated his special day with cake, balloons and a birthday party with his colleagues.

He said: “When I was younger, I got a lot of attention for being born on February 29. I remember when I was in school the teacher made me stand up in front of my whole class and told everyone that I was special because I was born on Leap Day.

“I’ve never had a birthday party before, so it’s really nice that my colleagues at work have made such a fuss. When I joined City Building, I had just celebrated my seventh birthday, having turned 28. It’s really kind of everyone to get involved.”

Often nicknamed ‘leapers’ or ‘leaplings’, the odds of being born on February 29 are less than 1%. There are approximately just 5 million people with leap day birthdays in the world.

Dr Graham Paterson, executive director at City Building, said: “Out of the 2,200 individuals that City Building employs, Martin is the only one who was born on a leap year, making him pretty special.

“We do our best to celebrate each and every one of our employees at City Building but given that Martin only gets the chance once every four years to experience his birthday, we couldn’t resist throwing him a party. We’d like to wish him many happy returns and look forward to celebrating his ninth birthday in 2024.”