You couldn’t make it up, the singer states. There she was preparing for her comeback record in nearly a decade, blissfully happy with her current love, 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 diagnosed with breast cancer.
The artist, real name Jessica Cornish, is renowned for being brutally honest. The LP, her latest release, was supposed to be an candid account, dealing with every moment of pain she’d faced since she last worked on songs (a gynecological condition, losing a baby, unsuccessful partnerships, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts) with characteristic openness. The first single, No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there was a mighty secret. The illness. Then next release, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and Cornish was giving interviews about how she was enjoying life to the fullest, while all the while coping with the disease. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in the start of summer she underwent breast removal surgery.
She gives me her best “Seriously?” expression. “I put out with a song called the track No Secrets. I’m conducting every press talk, and they inquire, ‘What’s happening?’ and I’m, like, ‘Erm, yeah, nothing …’” Cornish has just had to postpone shows because she’s yet to undergo cosmetic procedures.
We’re at a photography studio in the capital. She is wearing a tan faux-leather coat, jeans with ornate white designs, off-white boots and big frames. Picture rocker vibe meets vintage look. “It seems like I’m in the seventies 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 beams. Jessie is quick, unfiltered and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is hoping to make her first comedy performance next year. “I enjoy humor. During performances I often tease the fans.”
Medical Challenges and Discovery
Cornish was getting ready for an slot at the awards show when she found a lump. “I quickly sought to get it looked at, had an test, and they said, ‘It seems benign; you’ve got really good dense breast tissue.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. I have arm pain and pins and needles in my hands whenever I get up.’ And they suggested, ‘How about a biopsy?’ That was 28 March, the following my birthday.” It was a Friday. The physician told her if it was serious she’d reach out on the Monday. By then Cornish had assured herself it was fine. The way she describes it, it was simply too inconvenient to get cancer when she had so much on.
“It was a fortnight prior from releasing the album after years away and four years without a single. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Are you free at six?’ And I thought, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom expecting it’s all going to be positive, and she informs me, ‘Please take a seat.’ That sympathetic voice? And she reveals, ‘I regret to inform you but your biopsy results have come back as malignant cells.’” How did you respond? “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not ideal, is it?. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘My child depends on me.’”
I’ve been labeled difficult for knowing myself
She viewed the procedure frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. You’re escorted. During crises you are wheeled, but then I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. Like a dystopian scene.” But, she adds, she’s been blessed. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the procedure. “Cancer sucks, man, but however Thank fuck I found it early. I had the mastectomy recently and my affected breast now appears as a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” Another grin. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”
The next operation is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she observes, are now “uneven. The size doesn’t match. So inconsiderate! I felt, no need to bully me, I’m already having a difficult experience. Such disrespect! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got obsessive tendencies, and I know they’d never be flawless. Illness changed that.”
Previous Struggles
She is no stranger to illness. She believes her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s experienced in medical emergencies. Frequently they align with peak moments, functioning as a wake-up call, or blow, to make her recall not to take anything for granted. “Honestly, I feel fate says, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ From a young age, it has always gone alongside high points for me; a serious or unusual issue has affected my well-being.”
She recalls to her childhood, already making her debut performing in the London theater in a musical (she was chosen at the age of nine). That’s when she was told about the cardiac issue a syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as vertigo and heart flutters. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an IV drip, and going back into hospital at night.” She skips forward half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the trio Soul Deep while studying at the performing arts school. “I just got my first record deal, and I had a brain incident. Then when I was about to put out music in recently I had a collision and my larynx moved up and I couldn’t sing for a year.”
Oi, I say, slow down, I can’t keep up. A stroke so young? She nods|agrees
