Jessie J, 37, reveals she has breast cancer — she's part of a growing number of women diagnosed in their 30s

Yahoo

a day ago

Jessie J has been diagnosed with 'early" breast cancer. The British singer shared the news on Tuesday in a video posted to Instagram, where she announced plans to undergo surgery later this month. 'Cancer sucks in any form, but I'm holding on to the word 'early,'' she said, adding that she had been 'in and out of tests' recently.
The 'Price Tag' singer, who has a 2-year-old son with her partner Chanan Safir Colman, said she wanted to share her diagnosis because she's 'not processing it' due to her busy schedule. "It's a very dramatic way to get a boob job,' she joked. 'I am going to disappear for a bit after Summertime Ball to have my surgery, and I will come back with massive tits and more music.'
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At 37, Jessie J is part of a growing number of women in their 30s who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.
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Bachelorette star Katie Thurston was recently diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer after discovering a lump in her breast in late 2024. The 34-year-old announced in March 2025 that the cancer had spread to her liver.
Having breast cancer in your 30s is something Robyn Goldman is intimately familiar with. The Ajax, Ont. native was just 33 when she was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, a form of breast cancer in which cancer cells don't have the hormone receptors to grow. Although she wasn't formally diagnosed until October 2021, she said she knew for more than a year that it could be cancer — and was fighting to get the care she knew she needed from doctors.
"The lump was obvious," she previously toldYahoo Canada, adding that it was even visible through some tight-fitting shirts. "It was alarming, and it didn't feel like the rest of my breast. ... Call it intuition, but I knew exactly what it was. It didn't hurt, it didn't swell, it just felt like a hard marble."
Goldman's path to diagnosis was difficult. She first noticed the lump in November 2020 and contacted her doctor for a physical that did not include a breast exam. When she returned to her doctor in September 2021 seeking a referral for a mammogram, she said they dismissed her concerns as having "lumpy breasts."
"I felt gaslit by the health-care system," she said. "I was told I was too young and healthy — even a mammogram wasn't offered to me."
Less than a week later, Goldman went to a Toronto emergency room where she received an ultrasound and was scheduled for a follow-up appointment for a biopsy in mid-October.
"My tumour jumped off the screen," she said. "The inevitable phone call confirmed what my body had been telling me. My only concern leading up to it was how far along the cancer was. Maybe that helped me prepare. I think I had already accepted it."
According to the Canadian Cancer Society, around 30,800 people across the country were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2024. Five years prior in 2019, there were nearly 21,000 new breast cancer cases across the country, according to Statistics Canada data that excludes Quebec.
Despite traditional breast cancer awareness efforts being directed towards women in their 50s, recent data reports a significant increase in cases for women in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Some hospitals have also seen a rise in younger patients; North York General Hospital surgical oncologist Dr. Brian Pinchuk said he's seen an increase in patients, particularly those who are under age 50, he told CTV News.
Although some provinces, such as British Columbia, Ontario and New Brunswick, allow women to self-refer themselves for breast cancer screening, others limit access to publicly funded mammograms to women aged 50 and over. The existing guidelines make it difficult for women under 40, like Goldman, to access mammograms.
"I'm angry because I feel our system is ignorant and not willing to act preventatively," she said. "However, you have to change the framework before expecting changes. I'm furious at [my doctor], but she was just doing her job based on what the government tells her to do."
As a woman in her 30s, Goldman was hoping to explore her fertility options before beginning chemotherapy. High doses of chemotherapy drugs can cause permanent fertility changes and studies report female cancer survivors' chances of becoming pregnant are "40 per cent lower compared to women of the same age."
"At the hospital where I was initially diagnosed, fertility wasn't even mentioned, let alone included in my treatment plan," she said. In November 2021, Goldman decided to switch hospitals for treatment. "One one of the first things brought up was fertility. I was told that chemotherapy will certainly put me in medically-induced menopause."
Goldman's new physician encouraged her to look into freezing her eggs as "an insurance policy" if she chose to have children.
Although her team of fertility doctors had hoped to preserve 12 to 15 eggs, only nine were retrieved before Goldman began treatment. Goldman says her fertility clinic contacted her oncologist asking to push her chemotherapy date by a week to try and retrieve more eggs — but was told no.
The urgency made Goldman even more aware of the severity of her illness: "If I had waited a year to get diagnosed, would I even be alive?"
Now in her second year of remission, Goldman says she feels "good and healthy," but the toll cancer took on her body is evident. "I get more fatigued and probably don't have the stamina I used to, but being active helped during my journey."
Her one message for young women? "Listen to your body. Listen to that intuition and advocate for yourself because nobody's going to fight harder for you than you," she says. "You have nothing to lose."