In April, Angie French's doctor found a lump in her breast.

After a sonogram, the radiologist scheduled her for a biopsy.

"I was for sure I had it. I'd already talked myself into it," said the daughter of a 22-year breast cancer survivor. "The biopsy came back benign."

In August, the lump was still there and her doctor encouraged her to have it removed. She told the surgeon they weren't expecting any problems.

The original biopsy was wrong.

"My worst fear came true," French said. Given her mom's cancer, French, 32, knew she was a high risk and was very proactive. She had her first mammogram at 25. "But you still think this will never happen to you."

"I was in shock for a few days," French said. "I was really angry that the first one was wrong. It takes me a lot to get angry, and I was very angry." The original biopsy had taken cells from a non-cancerous fibroid cluster on the end of the tumor. The rest of the tumor was cancerous.

She questioned her doctor if it would have been any different if the tumor had been removed in April. She questioned herself whether she would have wanted to know four months earlier.

"My only sister got married on July 17 and I was the matron of honor," French said. "Would I have wanted to know I had cancer and be in treatments? I've played that card in my mind many times."

The Iowa native who lives in Normal is only now getting ready to start chemotherapy, waiting to see if she's eligible for a clinical study on partial breast radiation. The procedure tightly targets the area where the tumor is instead of irradiating the entire breast. If she qualifies for the study, she gets radiation first and then chemotherapy.

"I'm kind of in the first parts of my journey," French said. "The next six to eight months are going to be bad, but if it means I get to live to 80 and see my son, my grandchildren grow up, it's worth it."

French isn't sure how she'll handle 19-month-old son, Cayden's response. She's waiting until she finds out about the clinical trial. She's worried about chemotherapy disrupting her immune system and Cayden bringing home "every germ, every cough" from daycare.

"I'm scared, I'm going to have to wear a mask around my house and my son's not going to know me," French said. "I'm going to lose my hair anyway and he's going to say, who is this woman?

"If I don't feel well, if I'm too fatigued, if I'm too sick and I can't play with him. What happens when he brings me his favorite book and I can't read it to him?"

After her diagnosis, French was given literature and books to read, but she didn't dive right in.

"I couldn't read it for a while, because I had to cope and I had to deal. And then I picked up the book and I read some of it one weekend," French said. "That was a big step to be able to look and read stuff. OK, I have it. Now I can deal with it. Before I just couldn't even read about it. Now I can look at it and stare this thing in the face."

As an occupational therapist at BroMenn Regional Medical Center, French is surrounded by nurses, doctors and patients all day.

"It's in my face every day, which is good and bad," French said. "Working around the nurses, they're really, not curious, but they know. It's nice to bounce things off people."

People ask her if she's OK, and she tells them she's good.

"I don't think they realize that I don't have anything in me that's going to kill me anymore," French said. "I'm going to be fine. All the cancer is out of me and I just have to deal with this, and this, and this. I have to get the treatments so it will never come back."

Through the ordeal, French has turned to family and faith for strength. Her mother, who lives in Iowa, was there for each of her surgeries. She goes to church every week.

"I've always been a spiritual person," French said. "But I think this kicked that up a notch or five."

She encourages others going through the fight to take it one day at a time.

"Anything they can find to get their strength, whether it's a book, a clergy person, a song, a friend," French said. "Anything they can get a little strength, a little courage from."