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You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mother of a toddler after facing fertility challenges for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.

The musician, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with characteristic openness. The first single, the song No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with the disease. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.

She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.

We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, recalling the picture. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. She is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut soon. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

The artist was preparing for an performance at the awards show when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it checked, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then she had persuaded herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to face illness when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but then I just marched with a medical attire and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my right breast now looks like a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while attending the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”

Hey, I say, slow down, I need a moment. At just 17? She nods|agrees