Rae Radford, 59, lives in Ramsgate, Kent, with her partner Shaun, 62.
I can still remember the excitement and sense of accomplishment at buying my own home with my first husband, aged just 22. We’d scrimped and saved for 18 months to afford the deposit and even in the years that followed, when making the mortgage each month meant missing out on life’s little luxuries, I was glad to have got on the housing ladder so early.
I assumed I’d now start working my way up said ladder, trading in the two-bed doer-upper for a bigger home with parking and a garden. Only, life had other plans, and in December 1989, when our boys were just three and one, my husband and I separated. Our assets were split and the…
