Sunshine is a 1973 American made-for-television docudrama, directed by Joseph Sargent and produced by George Eckstein,[1] about a young wife and mother who dies of cancer at age 20.

[3] Young pregnant divorcee Kate (Cristina Raines) falls in love with struggling musician Sam Hayden (Cliff DeYoung), and they become a couple, eventually getting married.

Kate then decides to forgo treatment entirely and concentrate on being a wife to Sam and a mother to Jill in the short time she has left, since not treating the cancer will hasten her death.

Kate agrees to take part in a medical research study by keeping a recorded journal in which she describes her feelings about being a young wife and mother facing death.

Some critics also viewed Helton's story as having inspired a second made-for-TV movie, Message To My Daughter starring Bonnie Bedelia and Martin Sheen, which was first aired on December 12, 1973, on ABC.

Parts of the film were shot on location in Vancouver, British Columbia with neighbourhood scenes in Kitsilano and the West End, and footage of the Burrard and Granville Street Bridges and North Shore mountains.

The short-lived 1975 NBC television series Sunshine picked up the story of Sam Hayden struggling to raise Jill alone after Kate's death.

DeYoung, Mumy, Fischer, and Foster all appeared in the TV series reprising their movie roles, while Elizabeth Cheshire played the slightly older Jill Hayden.