There’s nothing wrong with leaving a sick partner

Danielle Epstein’s story is a sad one; last year she was in the process of buying a house with her boyfriend when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour, underwent a serious operation and had to learn to walk again. He wasn’t the only one who walked; Miss Epstein did also, and not just down the road where she could keep an eye on him, but all the way to sunny Thailand. She said in her defence: ‘I felt like the most awful person, leaving somebody because they have cancer, but it was damaging my mental health and it wasn’t helping him… I couldn’t sleep or eat, I was having panic attacks and was on so much medication to sort myself out I just couldn’t function.’ But that’s not the end of the story; Miss Epstein is to run in the London Marathon in her ex’s name to raise money for the charity Brain Tumour Research.