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You can’t imagine it, the singer says. At that moment preparing for her first album release in eight years, deeply enamored with her newish partner, and at long last the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for a decade, on top of the world. Suddenly in spring she was found to have cancer in her breast.

The musician, real name J. Cornish, is known for telling it as it is. The record, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every bit of hardship she’d experienced since she last recorded music (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicide) with her usual frankness. The initial release, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Later second single, her song Living My Best Life, was released in May and Cornish was talking to press about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with breast cancer. Four weeks after she disclosed her condition, and in July she underwent breast removal surgery.

She gives me her best “What the fuck?” look. “I put out with a song called No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I respond, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.

We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is wearing a beige fake-leather jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and big frames. Picture biker chic meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “I feel like I’m in the seventies and I should have a man with facial hair.” Easy Rider, I say, recalling the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. She is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her standup debut soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I often tease the crowd.”

Health Struggles and Diagnosis

Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it looked at, had an scan, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your tissue is healthy.’ And I insisted, ‘But I can feel it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they said, ‘We should biopsy it?’ It happened on March 28, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d call on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was okay. The way she explains it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had a busy schedule.

“We’re two weeks away from releasing the album after eight years without an album and no new music. And she contacted me and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘You might want to sit.’ You know that sad tone they use? And she reveals, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have indicated aggressive cancer.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ Immediately I felt was, ‘I can’t die because my son needs me.’”

I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself

She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you roll down in a bed, but this time I just walked with a medical attire and my backside out. It felt surreal.” But, she adds, she’s been fortunate. Without chemo or radio, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy a few months back and my right breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “At least the nipple remains.”

The follow-up procedure is both medical and cosmetic. Her chest, she remarks, are now “uneven. The implant is larger than before. How rude! I thought, don’t add insult to injury, I’m already having a difficult experience. How offensive! Amusingly I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be ideal. My plans were disrupted.”

A History of Health Challenges

Cornish is familiar with health problems. She believes her perspective on the cancer has been so upbeat because she’s used to medical emergencies. Many times they occur alongside professional successes, serving as a tap on the shoulder, or blow, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘You having a good time? Sit down.’ From a young age, it has consistently accompanied achievements for me; something severe or obscure has affected my well-being.”

She reminisces to her youth, already beginning featuring in the stage in a musical (she was selected at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was told about the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a tachycardia as well as dizziness and irregular beats. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has joined the female band Soul Deep while enrolled in the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was planning to release songs in recently I had a automobile accident and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a year.”

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