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You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, blissfully happy with her current love, and finally the parent to a young child after facing fertility challenges for ten years, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was found to have a breast cancer diagnosis.

The musician, actual name J. Cornish, is renowned for telling it as it is. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with typical candour. The initial release, the song No Secrets, was launched in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Later second single, Living My Best Life, debuted in May and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was thriving, while still secretly living with her cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she received surgical treatment.

She offers me her best “What the fuck?” expression. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m doing every interview, and they ask, ‘So what’s new with you?’ and I answer, ‘Well, not much…’” she has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.

We meet at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, jeans with detailed white appliqués, off-white boots and oversized specs. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” Like the film, I say, thinking of the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. Cornish is sharp-witted, bold and blunt. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I enjoy humor. During performances I frequently joke about the fans.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was preparing for an appearance at the Baftas when she noticed an abnormality. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they were, like, ‘It looks like nothing; your tissue is healthy.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the day after my birthday.” It was a Friday. The doctor told her if it was serious she’d contact on the Monday. By then Cornish had persuaded herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.

“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after years away and an extended break. And she contacted me 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 fine, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ That sympathetic voice? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your biopsy results have shown aggressive cancer.’” What was your reaction? “I answered, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. The timing is terrible.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”

Some men find me challenging due to my self-awareness

She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I fear going under. They walk you down. During crises you go on a gurney, but this time I just walked with a gown on and my backside out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she notes, she’s been fortunate. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the op. “Cancer sucks, man, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my one side now resembles a odd shape.” Another grin. “The nipple was preserved.”

The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her breasts, she remarks, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I felt, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! It’s funny because I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”

Previous Struggles

The singer is no stranger to illness. She thinks her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s familiar with physical challenges. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to remind her not to be complacent. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Sit down.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied high points for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”

She recalls to her 11-year-old self, already beginning starring in the stage in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was found to have the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards several years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I signed my initial contract, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my throat was injured and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”

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