She looks at least a decade younger than her 51 years and her daughters complain that she's never at home! But Seema Gill, above, is still looking for love, four years after her husband went to work in Africa and then left her for a woman half his age. Seema is now positive and full of energy, and has set up a successful group where lonely and isolated people can enjoy social activities. JAN WINTER met her

SEEMA HAS always thrown herself into the causes she believes are important. And when her partner of 23 years left her for a 25-year-old, she was strong for the sake of her teenage daughters and for her own health.

She had only been in Britain for a couple of years, having lived with her Danish husband in Denmark and in Tanzania for much of their life together.

And Seema believes she learnt a lot from British women, who put on brave faces in times of adversity. "I thought of women like Emma Thompson and Princess Diana, who when they were going through problems, put on an image to the outside world.

"You put your make-up on and decorate yourself and show the world you are not suffering. I think it's healthy because by doing those things it affects you positively. It was a therapy to go out. In the end, you feel the way you look, and that's a good thing.

"I didn't want to destroy myself by being bitter or calling him or running away or being put in a hospital for depression! So I wrote and wrote and wrote. I want to get it published."

Seema had lived happily in Denmark with her husband before the couple decided to go to Tanzania, where he was to work on an aid project. They were there for five years from 1982, and loved the country and its people.

Seema was not permitted to work by the terms of her husband's contract, so she became involved in a voluntary project for the children of the country's capital. The Play By Painting scheme gave poor children somewhere to go after school. Seema took charge of that project which became so successful that she had to establish three groups.

The family returned to Denmark, but Seema, who is originally from India, found levels of racism which she had not experienced before they left. She threw herself into setting up a magazine for immigrant women in the country.

The magazine was becoming increasingly successful and recognised when Seema's husband wanted to return to Tanzania. She was not keen, believing it was her time for her career to become more established. "But he wouldn't listen to reason and I had to leave everything. The family always came first.

"Again in Tanzania I got involved in different projects, such as making a film about women and the environment, but I wasn't feeling happy and I think I started getting a bit depressed about things and a bit bitter about my marriage."

The family returned after two years, but not to Denmark, where Seema wanted to live, but to Bradford. Her husband had begged her to move here, where he could study a specific course at the city's university. But after only a year he left for Eritrea, still a war-torn area of Africa where the family could not live. It was there he met a local 25-year-old woman and has lived there ever since.

Following the shock of her husband's news, Seema has thrown herself into work for youth and community education services, helping with projects for women.

And she set up the Arts and Social Club at the Hare and Hounds, Toller Lane, which runs social events for lonely and isolated people, giving her and them an active social life.

Seema has joined a dating agency in a bid to find love again, but although she has met some nice men there hasn't yet been that spark which could mean a long-term relationship.

"I'm out more than my daughters are! They try to ring me and I'm always out," she says.

Seema also writes poetry and prose, attending a group called Interchange, Bradford Writer's Network. She and two friends hope to have a volume of their poetry published soon.

l The Arts and Social Club meets from 8pm on the second and last Wednesdays of each month at the Hare and Hounds.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.