Watford City’s Jessie Veeder back on stage after cancer fight

Watford City, ND - Watford City singer and songwriter Jessie Veeder is back. She recently performed for the first time since doctors found cancer in her airway last spring.

Jessie Veeder is happy to be back on stage, singing the songs she loves, with the people she loves, and celebrating being cancer-free.

This is her first performance since May, when she recorded her latest album, “Playing Favorites.” She recorded that album with a tumor blocking 90% of her airway. It took two surgeries for doctors to remove the tumor.

“I still feel like I’m digging for my voice a little and it sounds a little different. Maybe it always will. I get tired and I still have pain in my chest. I have really good days and then I push it too hard. Then have a day I have to rest,” says Veeder.

The scar on her chest is a constant reminder of what she’s been through.

“If I have to wear this big red scar down my chest, fine. I’m going to show it off. I went through a lot,” she says. “I want my girls to see it and not be scared of it and to know that it’s a warrior badge. That’s cool.”

What’s also cool, being here in her hometown of Watford City.

“It feels like a full circle moment for me that I didn’t know was going to happen when I started this project,” says Veeder.

So she sings, with her girls by her side. The entire family is grateful to be here.

Veeder says one of the biggest lessons she learned through her cancer battle, is what it feels like to be a “sick person” and to need the support of her community. She says she’ll use that lesson to pay it forward to others.

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