Oncology nurses and consultants were involved in the development of the storyline, which was based on a real life case study. In Clive Seale's book, "Health and the Media", "EastEnders" was praised for putting its message across without being "gruelling". It has also been praised for showing "potent scenes" of a woman coming to terms with her diagnosis, scenes that also provided "rare opportunities" to portray a cancer patient "behaving badly" and depicting "ambivalent feelings (such as denial or anger)" — as it had been noted that cancer patients are typically portrayed in the media as "beatific, serene figures". When Peggy had a mastectomy, hundreds of viewers wrote to the BBC to thank producer, Matthew Robinson for tackling "a difficult subject so sensitively". However, not all viewers were impressed with the storyline. Felicity Smart, who had undergone a mastectomy, wrote to the BBC on behalf of the Breast Carer Support Group at St Thomas' Hospital in London to say that emotionally the storyline "hit the spot", but medically it was "hopelessly inaccurate" as according to Smart: "No one pulls pints and wisecracks with customers three days after having a mastectomy."