🔗 Share this article

You wouldn’t believe it, the singer remarks. There she was preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive 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, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, broken romances, psychological manipulation, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The lead track, the song No Secrets, was released in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Later second single, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She shoots me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every interview, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘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 London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, jeans with elaborate white patches, beige footwear and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe 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. “That’s what people called me at school!” She beams. Jessie is fast-thinking, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her initial standup show next year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I basically roast the audience.”

Personal Battles and News

The artist was planning an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘However, it’s there. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I get up.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The specialist told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the Monday. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had so much on.

“Just two weeks before from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your biopsy results have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What did you say? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I fear going under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you are wheeled, but this time I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been lucky. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The next operation is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she observes, are now “asymmetrical. The implant is larger than before. That’s impolite! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Cancer ruined that plan.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s used to health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to highlight not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Enjoying yourself? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her youth, already starting her career featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an IV drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She jumps ahead several years, and teenage Jess has entered the trio Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”

Oi, I say, slow down, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees