‘It has taught me to embrace life more’: Jessica Cornish on her health battle, comebacks and conquering the Chinese market

You couldn’t make it up, the singer says. There she was preparing for her first album release in eight years, blissfully happy with her recent boyfriend, and finally the mom to a little one after struggling to conceive for ten years, on top of the world. Then in spring she was diagnosed with cancer in her breast.

The artist, birth name J. Cornish, is renowned for speaking her mind. The record, Don’t Tease Me With a Good Time, was intended as an transparent story, dealing with every ounce of devastation she’d endured since she last worked on songs (endometriosis, miscarriage, broken romances, gaslighting, suicide) with characteristic openness. The lead track, her single No Secrets, was dropped in April. But by then there existed a huge secret. The illness. Later follow-up track, the upbeat Living My Best Life, was released in late spring and the artist was giving interviews about how she was living her best life, while all the while dealing with breast cancer. A month later she disclosed her condition, and in early July she had a mastectomy.

She shoots me her best “Seriously?” look. “I release with a song called No Secrets. I’m giving every media appearance, and they’re, like, ‘Any updates?’ and I answer, ‘Uh, nothing really’” Cornish has just had to call off performances because she’s still waiting for follow-up surgery.

We meet at a studio in the capital. She is dressed in a light brown synthetic jacket, blue jeans with detailed white appliqués, cream boots and large glasses. Picture rocker vibe meets 1970s Nana Mouskouri. “As if I’m in the 70s and I should have a boyfriend with a big tache.” Like the film, I say, referencing the film. “I was nicknamed that in school!” She grins. Jessie is quick, bold and blunt. She says she has always wanted to try comedy and is aiming for her first comedy performance soon. “I love making people laugh. On stage I frequently joke about the crowd.”

Medical Challenges and Discovery

Cornish was getting ready for an appearance at the ceremony when she found a lump. “I immediately went to get it examined, had an ultrasound, and they said, ‘It appears fine; your breasts are normal.’ And I insisted, ‘Yet I sense it. My arm hurts 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 weekend eve. The physician told her if it was bad news she’d contact on the start of the week. By then the singer had assured herself it was nothing. The way she describes it, it was just bad timing to get cancer when she had many commitments.

“We’re two weeks away from launching this thing after years away and an extended break. And the doctor messaged and said, ‘Is six okay?’ And I was, like, ‘It’s virtual, probably routine.’ So I jump on the Zoom believing it’s all going to be positive, and she goes, ‘Are you sitting down?.’ That sympathetic voice? And she continues, ‘Unfortunately but your reports have shown high-grade cancer cells.’” How did you respond? “I replied, ‘Well, that’s not great. That’s not fucking great timing.’ My initial thought was, ‘I have to survive for my boy.’”

Men have called me difficult because I’m a strong person who understands who I am

She considered the operation frightening and surreal. “I dislike anesthesia. They lead you. In urgent cases you are wheeled, but now I just marched with a hospital gown and my bum hanging out. You feel like you’re in an episode of Black Mirror.” But, she adds, she’s been lucky. No chemotherapy or radiation, just the surgery. “Cancer sucks, man, but yet Thank fuck I found it early. I underwent removal recently and my one side now looks like a grapefruit under a tight bedsheet.” She smiles again. “I got to keep the nipple, though.”

The subsequent surgery is therapeutic and aesthetic. Her breasts, she notes, are now “different sizes. They didn’t do an implant as small as my original. How rude! I thought, no need to bully me, I’m already having a hard period. How offensive! It’s funny because I said I’d avoid breast surgery because I’ve got perfectionism, and I know they’d never be perfect. Illness changed that.”

A History of Health Challenges

The singer is familiar with health problems. She thinks her attitude toward illness has been so optimistic because she’s used to medical emergencies. They have often coincided with career highs, functioning as a wake-up call, or punch in the stomach, to remind her not to take anything for granted. “Frankly, I feel life goes, ‘Enjoying yourself? Hold on.’ Ever since I was a child, it has consistently accompanied moments of success for me; a serious or unusual issue has impacted my body.”

She recalls to her childhood, already starting her career performing in the West End in Whistle Down the Wind (she was selected at the age of 9). That’s when she was found to have the heart condition Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which can cause a rapid pulse as well as lightheadedness and irregular beats. “I attended rehearsals intermittently on an drip, and being readmitted at night.” She fast-forwards half a dozen years, and young Jessica has joined the girl group the group while attending the performing arts school. “I secured a deal, and I had a stroke. Then when I was planning to release songs in the year 2020 I had a car crash and my larynx moved up and I was unable to vocalize for a twelve months.”

Hey, I say, wait, I am overwhelmed. At just 17? She nods|agrees