A MUSICIAN and writer is set to release her debut album, which she recorded during a round of palliative radiotherapy for cancer.

Jen Eve Taylor, who is being treated for osteosarcoma, told the Tribune: “I’m told I’ve got weeks to months [to live]. I’m sure most people would wind back going into radiotherapy, but instead, I committed to finishing my album.”

She had her upcoming indie rock album mastered by Katie Tavini – who has worked with Arlo Parks and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

She overhauled her schedule to give Ms Taylor a three-week window to finish recording. “I needed to know what kind of timeline Katie would be working on because I’d not finished the album yet and I also don’t have a lot of time left on this planet,” said Ms Taylor.

“So, if you’re saying it’s going to take six months, that’s not going to work for me, because I’ve literally got medical professionals saying I’m going to die any day now, which I’m not trying to think about too much. I can’t leave anything too long, and I want to get this done.”

Aside from the time and energy-consuming radiotherapy, Ms Taylor faced other obstacles to her music-making. “I’ve had most of my face cut out because of cancer treatment and for a long time I thought I was ­never going to sing again,” she said.

“Between that and this huge hole I have in my face, it’s not easy for me to sing. The radiotherapy was only going to be making it worse, so in the back of my mind I was like ‘any day now I could lose my ability to sing.’ But I found a way to sing, and I have sung on the album.”

Ms Taylor, who is a classically trained musician and grew up in a musical family, was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer in 2017. The cancer was removed during surgery, but, unfortunately, it returned in late 2020, and she has been undergoing palliative treatment since.

Ms Taylor, who lives in Upper Holloway, is also on the final round of edits for her debut novel that focuses on “female friendship, the path to creativity, and finding yourself in a world that wants to keep you small”.

“I was initially planning on going down the traditional publishing route and getting an agent, but that takes two-three years,” she said. “I want to be a published author for as long as I can.”

She cultivated a large online following through her blog, The Cancer Chronicles, which she began the day she was diagnosed as a means of keeping her friends and family at home informed.

“I went straight to a rooftop bar in London, then to another bar, and then I went home and started the blog,” she says. “I think the reason any of us share like this through illness is the hope of making someone else feel less alone, or making someone else feel seen or understood,” she added.

“My cancer is really rare; 75 per cent of people get misdiagnosed. No one knows about it, and it’s very, very fatal unless you catch it early, which no one ever does because no one knows about it. Any opportunity I have to say, ‘hi, I’m Jen and I have osteosarcoma’ feels worthwhile to raise awareness.”

Ms Taylor’s album, Dreams of the Lights, is set to be released on November 12.