You wouldn’t believe it, the singer says. There she was preparing for her new album launch in eight years, deeply enamored with her recent boyfriend, and at long last the mom to a little one after facing fertility challenges for a decade, feeling invincible. Suddenly in spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The singer-songwriter, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The record, the provocatively titled album, was meant as an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last recorded music (endometriosis, pregnancy loss, broken romances, emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts) with her usual frankness. The first single, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there remained a major undisclosed truth. The illness. Then next release, her song Living My Best Life, came out in late spring and the artist was speaking publicly about how she was living her best life, while at the same time dealing with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she had a mastectomy.
She offers me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” she has just had to cancel tour dates because she’s yet to undergo follow-up surgery.
We meet at a photo studio in the capital. She is sporting a light brown synthetic jacket, denim trousers with elaborate white patches, off-white boots and big frames. Think biker chic meets vintage look. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a partner with a mustache.” A biker reference, I say, referencing the film. “That’s what people called me at school!” She smiles. She is quick, unfiltered and direct. She says she has always fancied doing comedy and is aiming for her standup debut in the coming year. “I love making people laugh. On stage I basically roast the crowd.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was preparing for an slot at the ceremony when she noticed an abnormality. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they were, like, ‘It seems benign; your tissue is healthy.’ And I responded, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts and tingling in my hands whenever I rise.’ And they replied, ‘Well, let’s just do a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was concerning she’d reach out on the start of the week. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she tells it, it was simply too inconvenient to receive a diagnosis when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from launching this thing after a long hiatus and no new music. 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 thinking it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ The solemn tone? And she says, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have come back as malignant cells.’” What did you say? “I answered, ‘That’s unfortunate. The timing is terrible.’ The first thing I thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She considered the operation terrifying and absurd. “I hate being put under. They walk you down. You know when you have emergency surgery you go on a gurney, but now I just marched with a gown on and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, Cornish says, she’s been lucky. Without chemo or radio, just the surgery. “It’s terrible, but you know what? Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my one side now looks like a odd shape.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The follow-up procedure is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “different sizes. The implant is larger than before. So inconsiderate! I thought, why make it worse, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! Ironically I said I’d never get my boobs done because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be flawless. My plans were disrupted.”
Past Medical Issues
The singer is accustomed to medical issues. She thinks 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 highlight not to assume everything is fine. “Honestly, I feel the universe whispers, ‘Things going well? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has often paired with moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She reminisces to her childhood, already beginning performing in the stage in a musical (she was cast at the age of nine years old). That’s when she was diagnosed with the medical problem Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as dizziness and heart flutters. “I rehearsed between visits on an intravenous line, and being readmitted at night.” She skips forward six years, and 17-year-old Jess has become part of the girl group Soul Deep while studying at the Brit 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 throat was injured and I lost my voice for a year.”
Wow, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. At just 17? She nods|agrees
