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You can’t imagine it, the singer says. There she was gearing up for her comeback record in eight years, deeply enamored with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, on top of the world. Then in March she was found to have breast cancer.

The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The LP, her latest release, was meant as an candid account, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, miscarriage, failed relationships, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The first single, the song No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. Her diagnosis. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with the disease. A month later she went public, and in July she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” the singer has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.

We’re at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with detailed white appliqués, beige footwear and big frames. Imagine motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, recalling the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, bold and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I basically roast the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

She was planning an appearance at the awards show when she discovered a mass. “I quickly sought to get it examined, had an test, and they told me, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘How about a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was serious she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.

“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after years away and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am

She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. During crises you roll down in a bed, but now I just marched with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got OCD, and I know they’d never be perfect. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her youth, already starting her career performing in the stage in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while attending the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”

Oi, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees