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You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her new album launch in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her current love, and at long last the parent to a young child after dealing with conception issues for a decade, feeling invincible. Then in March she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The singer-songwriter, real name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was intended as an candid account, tackling every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last worked on songs (endometrial issues, miscarriage, unsuccessful partnerships, emotional abuse, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Then follow-up track, Living My Best Life, came out in May and she was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with the disease. Subsequently she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.

She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.

Our interview takes place at a photography studio in London. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Picture motorcycle style meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Like the film, I say, recalling the movie. “They used to call me that!” She beams. Cornish is quick, irreverent and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. During performances I basically roast the audience.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

She was getting ready for an slot at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an scan, and they said, ‘It seems benign; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they replied, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had persuaded herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to face illness when she had many commitments.

“It was a fortnight prior from debuting the project after eight years without an album and no new music. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Can you talk at six?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘I’m so, so sorry but your reports have shown aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just marched with a gown on and my rear exposed. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? I’m grateful it was caught soon. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my right breast now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”

The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. So inconsiderate! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. Illness changed that.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is familiar with health problems. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. They have often coincided with career highs, acting as a reminder, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Since childhood, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a major or strange event has happened to my health.”

She takes me back to her youth, already beginning starring in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and palpitations. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She jumps ahead six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the trio Soul Deep while enrolled in the academy. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”

Oi, I say, hold on, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees