I'd love to be able to write a nice piece about how my life is so much better now, years after the fall out from my ex leaving me with all that entailed for my 2 young children and I at the time.

The dread of not seeing them on a daily basis was crippling at times but I was fortunate as a father to get multiple nights per week access. It felt the least I deserved.

Less than a year later my ex was married and nothing seems more difficult than another man raising your children taking the rsponsiblity away from their father.

My 2 children are now at high school, they are becoming older, one wiser,

Over xmas he was sunning himself in the Maldives (not that we knew that at the time). I had barely eaten or slept in a month. I had also witnessed the murder of my neighbour on my doorstep. I was beyond stressed. I'd no income, no idea what would become of us (my ex assured me that I would keep the house, but it seemed unlikely we could afford this, even before I knew he'd been secretly taking our savings to cover up for the fact that he'd not been earning).

Luckily I'd