Actress Claire Goose's life for a six-month spell last year sounds like the stuff of a TV melodrama.
The ex-Casualty star suffered a highly-publicised break-up with her actor boyfriend Jonathan Kerrigan and had no fewer than three cancer scares.
"It wasn't the greatest period in my life," says Claire.
"It made me re-evaluate things a bit, take stock of what was going on and change some things. The cancer scares are now behind me - and I feel much happier with my life."
Claire has given up smoking - she used to puff her way through 20 cigarettes a day - coffee and makes regular trips to the gym.
Single, now, for more than a year, she says she also takes a more selfish approach to life, than she once did.
"I put myself first more than I once did! I'm dating for virtually the first time in my life and having a ball doing that.
"In the past, I had friendships, with guys that turned into something more serious.
"I suppose I am just getting the most out of life. In the past, I would have moaned if I had to follow up a day's work with something like a photoshoot.
"But now I think, `I wouldn't have said yes to this shoot if I hadn't wanted to do it so I should enjoy the experience."
About the only thing that hasn't changed in Claire's life is her work schedule.
Series two of Waking The Dead begins tonight. Claire is police investigator Mel, in a highly-trained team investigating so-called cold cases, those committed in the past and never solved.
The series begins with Mel suffering a touch of the Hannibal Lecters.
She has to visit a serial killer, who abducted and murdered five women, in jail. The irony is he might be able to stop further killings.
Mel's boss Boyd, played by Trevor Eve, has a theory that the killer, Rice, worked with an accomplice and he may be about to become active again.
"So Mel has to go and talk to this dreadful man and try and get details about his former sidekick if, indeed, there was one.
"It was pretty scary to do because the actor playing Rice was so convincing. Sam West, son of Timothy West and Prunella Scales, genuinely frightened me in the part and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible!"
