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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment gearing up for her first album release in eight years, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, birth name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, her latest release, was meant as an open book, addressing every bit of hardship she’d faced since she last made an album (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, failed relationships, psychological manipulation, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The cancer. Then next release, Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while still secretly dealing with her cancer. Four weeks after she shared the news, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.

She gives me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they ask, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s still waiting for reconstructive surgery.

We’re at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, denim trousers with ornate white designs, cream boots and big frames. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, referencing the picture. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is quick, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always been interested in humor and is aiming for her first comedy performance next year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the audience.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

She was planning an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they suggested, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the post-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 convinced 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 years away and four years without a single. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. 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 hate being put under. They walk you down. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but then I just walked with a hospital gown and my backside out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet I’m grateful it was caught soon. The surgery happened a few months back and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she observes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly 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.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is accustomed to medical issues. She feels her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in health crises. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or shock, to highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘You having a good time? Take a seat.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the stage in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and teenage Jess has entered the female band the group while attending the Brit School. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a long period.”

Wow, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees