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You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was readying for her first album release in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Then in spring she was diagnosed with a breast cancer diagnosis.

The artist, birth name Jess Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, the provocatively titled album, was supposed to be an transparent story, addressing every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The first single, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there existed a huge secret. Her diagnosis. Then follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, came out in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while at the same time living with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in July she had a mastectomy.

She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” expression. “I come out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.

Our interview takes place at a photo studio in the capital. She is dressed in a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Think motorcycle style meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” A biker reference, I say, thinking of the picture. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Cornish is fast-thinking, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always been interested in humor and is hoping to make her standup debut in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. When performing I often tease the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

The artist was getting ready for an appearance at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.

“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She found the surgery frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. It felt surreal.” But, she notes, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Luckily it was detected early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now appears as a fruit under fabric.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”

The subsequent surgery is for health and appearance. Her chest, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. That’s impolite! I felt, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so positive because she’s experienced in health crises. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or shock, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has happened to my health.”

She reminisces to her youth, already beginning featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the trio the group while studying at the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a cerebral event. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”

Wow, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees