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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. There she was readying for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in March she was told she had cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, addressing every ounce of devastation she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, psychological manipulation, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Later next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, debuted in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. Subsequently she went public, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.

We’re at a studio in London. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is sharp-witted, unfiltered and filter-free. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I like entertaining. On stage I basically roast the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

The artist was preparing for an performance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘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 concerning she’d contact on the start of the week. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after a long hiatus and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I thought, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call thinking it’s all going to be fine, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. What awful timing.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

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

She viewed the procedure terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. 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 both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”

A History of Health Challenges

The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to physical challenges. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning starring in the London theater in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead half a dozen years, and teenage Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a long period.”

Hey, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees