I was diagnosed with cancer and at 69 with no husband or children, I've realised how truly alone I am. It feels shameful and embarrassing... but this is what childless women in their 40s need to hear about their future

In layman’s terms, I had a fast-growing skin cancer, and if it had spread – urgent scans would be needed to find out – it would likely kill me. My parents are both dead, I don’t have any siblings and, despite being married twice, I never had children. At a follow-up appointment a week later, my doctor told me ‘I don’t like you facing this alone’ – before urging me to call her any time. But he missed his children so much he left me six years later to return to the UK. People say I should ‘get a man’, but at this stage I don’t want to take on someone else’s baggage.