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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in eight years, ecstatically in love with her current love, and finally the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The artist, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for speaking her mind. The LP, her latest release, was intended as an open book, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” glance. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.

We meet at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Think biker chic meets 70s singer aesthetic. “It seems like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was okay. The way she tells it, it was inopportune to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be good, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”

The subsequent surgery is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a rough time. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s familiar with medical emergencies. They have often coincided with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has often paired with high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”

She recalls to her childhood, already beginning starring in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in the year 2020 I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”

Oi, I say, wait, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees