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You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was gearing up for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The artist, actual name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The LP, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an transparent story, addressing every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with her usual frankness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with breast cancer. A month later she went public, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.

She offers me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.

We’re at a studio in the capital. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, cream boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, irreverent and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was preparing for an slot at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘How about a biopsy?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And she contacted me and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I log in thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs 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 this time I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal four months ago and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her boobs, she remarks, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

She is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside career highs, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her youth, already starting her career starring in the West End in the production (she was cast at the age of 9). That’s when she was diagnosed with the cardiac issue Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band Soul Deep while studying at the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a twelve months.”

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