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You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her first album release in nearly a decade, ecstatically in love with her recent boyfriend, and finally the parent to a young child after struggling to conceive for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in March she was told she had breast cancer.

The artist, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, her latest release, was intended as an open book, addressing every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, mental health struggles) with her usual frankness. The initial release, her single No Secrets, was released in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. Her diagnosis. Later next release, Living My Best Life, was released in May and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while coping with her cancer. A month later she went public, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She gives me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I come out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they’re, like, ‘What’s happening?’ and I respond, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” the singer has just had to call off performances because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.

We’re at a photography studio in London. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and big frames. Think rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “They used to call me that!” She beams. She is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her standup debut next year. “I like entertaining. When performing I frequently joke about the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

She was planning an appearance at the awards show when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I responded, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the post-birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had convinced herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to receive a diagnosis when she had many commitments.

“Just two weeks before from releasing the album after eight years without an album and four years without a single. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I assumed, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be good, and she says, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your test results have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I said, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ 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 frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just walked with a medical attire and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the op. “Cancer is awful, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy four months ago and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” A further beam. “At least the nipple remains.”

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

A History of Health Challenges

She is no stranger to illness. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so optimistic because she’s used to health crises. Frequently they align with professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to make her recall not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; a major or strange event has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her youth, already making her debut featuring in the London theater in Whistle Down the Wind (she was chosen at the age of 9). That’s when she was told about the heart condition WPW, which can cause a fast heartbeat as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the Brit School. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a car crash and my throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”

Hey, I say, hold on, I am overwhelmed. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees