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You can’t imagine it, the singer remarks. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for ten years, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The album, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The lead track, No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. The cancer. Later second single, Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and she was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she received surgical treatment.

She gives me her best “Seriously?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I respond, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.

We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is dressed in a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She grins. Cornish is quick, bold and direct. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I love making people laugh. During performances I often tease the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was planning an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had so much on.

“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘A video call, likely minor.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

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

She found the surgery terrifying and absurd. “I dislike anesthesia. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but this time I just marched with a hospital gown and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now appears as a odd shape.” She smiles again. “At least the nipple remains.”

The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her boobs, she notes, are now “asymmetrical. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

She is familiar with health problems. She feels her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with health crises. Many times they occur alongside peak moments, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to highlight not to be complacent. “Truly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with high points for me; something severe or obscure has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already making her debut starring in the West End in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the medical problem a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward several years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a long period.”

Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees