I had sat with Nic as he had battled with the company over this decision, reading the letters he obtained from his doctors calling the company's decision "cruel and highly distasteful." I promised him then that I would continue to fight for the family when he was gone.

So if inspiration is so important - how do we find it? And more importantly - how do we give it to others? Well finding it is easy. It may not be sold on the shelves of Waitrose but it is readily available to those who know where to look.

Ok, I'm sorry but even as you go through your divorce, as bitter and acrimonious as it is or can be at the time, there are some things that may happen, which you might indeed surprise you, hurt you or just plain "make you have kittens" as my friend June would say.

When we're at school we pick a new best friend every academic year, and that's it-we're set, bound by a mutual love of The Wombles. By our teens we have a 'crew', a 'gang'. At university we're drunk. And by the time we're adults with jobs and responsibilities and families we... stop making friends?

How can we protect ourselves from the pitfalls? Checking out is not an option: a life without girlfriends is a life deprived of a bond we cannot find anywhere else. Research bears this out: for both sexes, the biggest insulation against loneliness has been proven to come from strong emotional connections with women.

The fact that people will seek out relationship counselling or relationship coaching to repair their friendship shows how very important fixing a friendship can be for some people. It can be like losing a member of your family when you're not on good terms with an important friend.

We all need our friends, especially in times of crisis. Divorce and separation is one of those life crises where you might feel that you need all the friends you can get, or do you? It is interesting to think about what place friends occupy in the new and choppy waters of a painful separation.

As young parents frantically balance work and family life, new research suggests that allowing friendships to fall by the wayside could be bad for you...

I just had the best summer holiday. Not because it was particularly luxurious or exotic. We were in a crumbling beach house, there was a constant bathroom queue and the kitchen was less than mod-con. It was special because we were in the best of company. Simple pleasures shared by like minded souls - cards under the stars, picnics and side splitting jokes.

It is easy now in a way that it never was before, to find out about a partners' infidelity through social media. Unfortunately, it is not just the revelation that is so accessible, but much more.