BAFFLED by the recent spate of deaths due to cancer, I asked a medical doctor friend why cancer had become so prevalent. “It’s been around for ages,” he told me, ‘people only call it by different names, and some were comfortable referring to the ailment as due to supernatural forces rather than to a rational explanation.” In a country where most men are fixated on the boobs, what position does a breast-cancer survivor find herself in her partner’s affection? Does the “In sickness and in health” vow hold true here?

I love s3x but I don’t want anything serious. I am a woman of 28 and have gone through a lot in life to build myself. I am a working student and I train myself. Basically, I don’t have time for any relationship and because of that, I have hurt a lot of people. You have so much information and advice for those who want to start, maintain, or end a relationship; but then there are people like me. In fact, I have no desire to be in a relationship with anyone.

I have been dating my guy for five years but things are not working out as they should. We have been having conflicts . I don’t think that I love him anymore! My friends think I should take things easy and give the relationship another chance but I’m confused. What should I do?

FROM time to time, I get letters from you readers that are so interesting that I feel I ought to share them with the rest of you. A few days back, a letter simply signed “Iyabode” popped up on my e-mail and I couldn’t help chuckling to myself as I read it. She wrote: “Dear Bunmi, I am one of the regular readers of your articles in The Vanguard every Sunday, and I do not even know how fully I can express my feelings about your articles. If I may tell you, they have really improved my lifestyle and I always make copies available to friends whenever the need arises.

When a long-term relationship dies—this by the way includes marriage—the hurting partners need enough time to grieve so they won’t burn their fingers twice by jumping into new relationships. We all felt sorry for Mac, a cherished friend, when his wife left him. Usually, it’s the man who kicks out his partner, and no amount of trying to patch up the relationship would shift him, but this time around, the shoe is on the other foot, and we couldn’t make Mac’s wife change her mind anyway; she was already abroad with her new-found love and a pregnancy she had whilst still married to Mac!