Because that's what they chose? If it's not working financially, including periods of sickness, maybe it wasn't the best route to go down?
I'm not just saying feck everyone self employed though, despite the comments about the books, everyone has a different situation. In this particular one, I find it quite daft that she quit her job, spends all week at home, and now is complaining gigs are being cancelled so is getting hit. Maybe wait until you're getting paid enough from it to put money in the emergency fund because shit happens. It's quite easy to do that when most gigs are Friday/Saturday. And just from working more she'd be able to create that fund. Before anyone says that would mean working 7 days a week, it's not exactly tough work, and a lot of people do it for free.