You can’t imagine it, the singer states. At that moment readying for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after dealing with conception issues for a decade, riding high. Suddenly in spring she was found to have breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, actual name Jess Cornish, is famous for being brutally honest. The album, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was supposed to be an candid account, addressing every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last made an album (endometriosis, losing a baby, failed relationships, gaslighting, suicide) with typical candour. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in the spring. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, debuted in May and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was thriving, while all the while coping with her cancer. Subsequently she shared the news, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.
She offers me her best “Are you kidding?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every media appearance, and they ask, ‘Any updates?’ and I’m, like, ‘Well, not much…’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Our interview takes place at a studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, beige footwear and large glasses. Think rocker vibe meets 70s singer aesthetic. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Easy Rider, I say, thinking of the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She beams. She is fast-thinking, irreverent and filter-free. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is planning to attempt her first comedy performance soon. “I like entertaining. When performing I often tease the audience.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I promptly visited to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I was, like, ‘But I can feel it. I’ve got an achy arm and tingling in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘We should biopsy it?’ The date was March 28, the day after my birthday.” It was a weekend eve. The doctor told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then the singer had convinced herself it was nothing. The way she explains it, it was simply too inconvenient to face illness when she had a busy schedule.
“We’re two weeks away from debuting the project after a long hiatus and an extended break. And she [the doctor] texted and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, it’s a Zoom, it won’t be anything.’ So I join the call expecting it’s all going to be good, and she goes, ‘Please take a seat.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she continues, ‘I regret to inform you but your test results have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” What was your reaction? “I replied, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”
Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am
She found the surgery scary and bizarre. “I fear going under. You’re escorted. In urgent cases you go on a gurney, but now I just strolled down with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemo, no radiotherapy, just the op. “It’s terrible, but however Luckily it was detected early. The surgery happened four months ago and my affected breast now looks like a odd shape.” She smiles again. “The nipple was preserved.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a hard period. So rude! Amusingly I said I’d not undergo augmentation because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”
A History of Health Challenges
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks her outlook on her diagnosis has been so positive because she’s familiar with health crises. They have often coincided with professional successes, acting as a reminder, or blow, to remind her not to assume everything is fine. “Frankly, I feel fate says, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has always gone alongside achievements for me; a major or strange event has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her youth, already starting her career performing in the London theater in the production (she was cast at the age of nine). That’s when she was diagnosed with the heart condition a syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and 17-year-old Jess has entered the girl group the group while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was ready to debut in recently I had a automobile accident and my voice box shifted and I couldn’t sing for a twelve months.”
Hey, I say, wait, I need a moment. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
