The title and the words "based on a true story" would normally set the alarm bells ringing, but this isn't your average "disease of the week" TV movie. For a start, it was written by Joyce Wadler, a sassy New York journalist with a neat turn of phrase, and was directed by Betty Thomas - Officer Bates in Hill Street Blues - who made her directing name with the hilarious Brady Bunch Movie. Meredith Baxter, the star of so much small-screen fodder, also outdoes herself as Wadler, never allowing self-pity or false courage to colour her performance. Interesting rather than inspirational, but honest and intelligent.

Meredith Baxter plays Joyce Wadler in this heartwarming story of hope, courage and redemption inspired by the New York City journalist's real-life struggle with breast cancer. Stuck in a lackluster relationship with her boyfriend, she's forced to re-examine her life when she receives the troubling diagnosis.