Last month I did something that challenged me, probably more than I care to admit. I walked part of the Camino de Santiago. Alone.

Through the dusty warm plains of Portugal and Spain, just me, my blisters and my thoughts. It was challenging, humbling and at times, I’ll admit it, genuinely daunting. But I am so glad I did it.

Along the Camino you cannot help but connect. With strangers, with fellow walkers, with yourself which is part of the reason I did it. And walking alone, it reminded me just how deeply we are in fact wired for human connection. We crave it and actually we can start to suffer when it is completely absent, even just for a few days.

I reflected a lot along the way. And I did think about how important that human connection is and that relationship health is just as important as physical health but of course we often overlook it. How often has your GP asked about your home life when enquiring about your health? Or wanted to know how often you met friends socially, or if you were in fact, lonely? And loneliness doesn’t have to be the absence of people around you. You can be surrounded by people but be the loneliest person in the room, still lacking in that vital and all important connection.

Perhaps that is why so many of us became fascinated with pictures of the baby monkey at a Japanese zoo called Punch, pictured cuddling a stuffed orangutang earlier this year. After being rejected by his mother and the rest of his troop, the zoo-keepers gave him a stuffed toy which he dragged round and cuddled to help manage his distress and loneliness. These photos went viral as I think many of us, unknowingly empathised with this sense of utter dejection and the sad photos captured our hearts somewhat. Everyone has at some point experienced loneliness and most of us know we would never want to go back to that feeling.

Dr Helen Kingston who will be joining us at the NCIM Summer Conference to speak about loneliness in later life, says that chronic loneliness carries the same mortality risk as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Let that sink in.

As healthcare professionals we might ask our patients about diet, exercise and sleep. But how often do we ask: are you lonely?

Dr Elizabeth Thompson