The issues my parents faced living in a foreign land never truly dawned on me until I began living abroad alone, and that "dawning" was only a superficial realisation. Growing up, I found my parents uncouth and I was annoyed by the seemingly unending confusion and embarrassment they bestowed upon me: why did they have to speak Vietnamese so loudly in public?

Britain is home to a load of sad, lonely singletons if recent headlines are anything to go by. Since a UK study has revealed that 16% of Brits now live alone compared to 9% in 1978, mental health charity Mind have expressed their concerns over the state of mind of people living alone. However what they have failed to address is that for many of these people, living alone is a choice.

Older people are in the grip of a "loneliness epidemic", according to research published today. More than 66 million hours are spent alone by peopl...

One in four people newly diagnosed with cancer in the UK will lack support from family or friends during their treatment and recovery - that's more than an estimated 70,000 people every year not getting help at a time when they need it more than ever. Of those, around a third - an estimated 20,000 people each year - will receive no support whatsoever, facing cancer completely alone.

Nearly a third of grandparents only see their grandchildren once a month - or even less frequently - according to a survey released today. The stud...

Joe, 91, lost his wife 10 years ago and his only son died of Cancer. "I think about them all the time" the charmingly humble man tells me, "its just that Christmas brings back memories of family Christmases when my boy was little.. it is one time of year I don't look forward to.."

'What on earth is the point of my life?' Molly (not her real name) asks me. The frail, weary to her bone 92 year old looks at me as her shaky hands struggle to adjust a stubbornly troublesome hearing aid. 

Loneliness among older people is becoming a major health problem, experts report today. More than 700,000 of elderly Brits feel lonely and isolated...

We live in a world where we are constantly busy busy. Even by ourselves we can fill our time now to the brim with all the new digital applications. Agendas are overloaded, everyone is multi-tasking and even sleep is restless with BlackBerrys by the bed.

Loneliness can shorten your life, a new study has shown. Scientists in the US found that "feeling lonely" almost doubled the risk of dying in a pop...

Recent predictions from the Office of National Statistics suggest that one in three babies born today will live to 100 and beyond. Bearing in mind our ageing population, we've been doing quite a lot of work over the past five years to think about how we can enable us all to live our lives the way we want to, where we want to.

Many of us are so busy with work commitments and after-work activities Monday-to-Friday that we can't wait for the peace and quiet of the weekend in order to recover. And then, when we wake up on Saturday morning to an empty bed, an empty house and an empty weekend, it doesn't feel relaxing, it feels hideously oppressive.

Loneliness in London sounds like a heinous oxymoron. The centre of almighty Britain, home to over nine million people, has been hailed by countless critics as a socialite's playpen, a place where anything is possible, and the streets are paved with gold.

Eliminating loneliness is a lofty goal. And yet it's one that should theoretically be within our grasp. I was really interested to read that Sean Parker was working on a new start-up with just that goal in mind.