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You wouldn’t believe it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her comeback record in nearly a decade, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mother of a toddler after struggling to conceive for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.

The singer-songwriter, actual name Jessica Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was meant as an open book, tackling every moment of pain she’d experienced since she last made an album (a gynecological condition, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was launched in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The cancer. Later follow-up track, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was talking to press about how she was living her best life, while at the same time coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she received surgical treatment.

She shoots me her best “Seriously?” glance. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s awaiting cosmetic procedures.

Our interview takes place at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and large glasses. Imagine rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the movie. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is hoping to make her initial standup show in the coming year. “I enjoy humor. On stage I frequently joke about the audience.”

Personal Battles and News

She was planning an slot at the Baftas when she discovered a mass. “I promptly visited to get it checked, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘However, it’s there. I have arm pain and numbness in my fingers whenever I wake up.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ That was 28 March, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was bad news she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was inopportune to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.

“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after a long hiatus and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I log in expecting it’s all going to be fine, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ The solemn tone? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have come back as aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I said, ‘Well, that’s not great. What awful timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. They lead you. In urgent cases you roll down in a bed, but now I just strolled down with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal a few months back and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”

The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she notes, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I reflected, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a rough time. How offensive! Ironically I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”

Past Medical Issues

Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel life goes, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Since childhood, it has often paired with moments of success for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”

She takes me back to her 11-year-old self, already starting her career performing in the stage in the production (she was selected at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and palpitations. “I was going in and out of rehearsals on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards six years, and young Jessica has joined the female band the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in 2020 I had a collision and my voice box shifted and I lost my voice for a year.”

Hey, I say, hold on, I can’t keep up. You really had a stroke at 17? She nods|agrees