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You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her new album launch in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, riding high. Then in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.

The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was intended as an candid account, tackling every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, suicide) with typical candour. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and she was speaking publicly about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly living with her cancer. Four weeks after she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” she has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a photo studio in London. She is sporting a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Imagine motorcycle style meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “It seems like I’m in the 1970s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the movie. “They used to call me that!” She smiles. Cornish is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I frequently joke about the crowd.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was planning an appearance at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I promptly visited to get it examined, had an scan, and they said, ‘It looks like nothing; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was okay. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had many commitments.

“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer is awful, but you know what? Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened a few months back and my one side now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”

The follow-up procedure is for health and appearance. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. That’s impolite! I reflected, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”

Past Medical Issues

She is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with peak moments, acting as a reminder, or shock, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Truly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the West End in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and returning to the hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio Soul Deep while studying at the academy. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I lost my voice for a year.”

Oi, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees