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You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in March she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.

The musician, birth name Jess Cornish, is famous for speaking her mind. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an transparent story, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (endometrial issues, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time living with breast cancer. A month later she shared the news, and in July she received surgical treatment.

She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting follow-up surgery.

We’re at a studio in London. She is sporting a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Jessie is fast-thinking, irreverent and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance in the coming year. “I like entertaining. When performing I basically roast the crowd.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

She was getting ready for an slot at the Baftas when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had a busy schedule.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have indicated malignant cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but this time I just marched with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, Cornish says, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my affected breast now appears as a fruit under fabric.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”

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

Past Medical Issues

Cornish is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Truly, I feel life goes, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She recalls to her youth, already making her debut performing in the West End in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition WPW, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the female band Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”

Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees