Arnika Edwards, Director of Administrative Support Services for the Auburn women’s basketball team, let the gathering of Tiger players in on a piece of news after Friday’s practice that she’d been keeping from them for a little more than five months.

Before the players took the court against Mississippi State for today’s annual Pink Zone game for breast cancer awareness, she wanted to let them know they were playing for her.

“I don’t want to be a distraction,” said Edwards, who joined the Tigers’ staff in 2007. “I figured this would only be fitting, being the Pink Zone game, to let them know that statistically, one out of every seven or eight people in your surroundings will get breast cancer.

“There are seven of us on our staff. And I’m that one.”

Edwards said she discovered a lump during a self-evaluation, and a mammogram taken in late September revealed it to be cancerous.

“I was not surprised, because I’d pretty much prepared myself for it, but shocked,” Edwards said. “You always have the hope of it being a cyst, and just that. Nobody wants to hear the ‘c’ word. It kind of takes you aback.”

The good news for Edwards was the cancer was low grade, and she had the lump and three lymph nodes removed a week after diagnosis.

But two of the lymph nodes also tested positive, so she went in for a second round of surgery on Oct. 26 to remove the rest of the lymph nodes, which all tested negative.

Edwards started a round of radiology on Dec. 28 — she said she has a daily 7 a.m. radiation treatment appointment at the East Alabama Medical Center — and her last treatment is scheduled for Feb. 18.

In short, the prognosis is good.

“It hasn’t taken a toll, besides me having to get up at 6:30 every morning,” Edwards said. “But that is a very, very minute sacrifice.”

Tigers head coach Nell Fortner, who has known about Edwards’ condition since it first presented itself, said Edwards has managed to stay positive throughout the entire process.

“She’s been a tremendous example of how to stay positive and think only in the best terms,” Fortner said. “She’s been a real inspiration in this office.”

Edwards said her mental state has been just as important as her physical condition over the course of her treatments.

She said the only side effect she has experienced is a little skin discoloration.

“Your mental being is really who you are,” Edwards said. “It makes the difference in how you handle things in life. A lot of times we can make things worse on us physically because of our mental state. I was determined from Day 1 to approach this positively. I’ve had a great supporting cast. Everybody else has been positive around me.

“I have a quote I got during the very first week I found out: ‘Focus on the goal, not the struggle.’ That’s what I’ve been trying to do.”

The Pink Zone game starts at 2 p.m. today. All fans are encouraged to wear pink to the game and Alfa Insurance will donate $1 for each of the first 5,000 fans in attendance to benefit the Montgomery-based Joy to Life Foundation.

Fans are also encouraged to bid on items in the Online Pink Charity auction available at AuburnTigers.com. Proceeds from the auction will benefit local charities that support screenings and early detection of breast cancer.

As for the action on the court, Tigers players say the cause will hit a little closer to home this year.

“I think it will give us that boost to know that we are doing more than playing basketball, we are playing for a cause that affects all of us now,” said senior forward Jordan Greenleaf, whose aunt passed away from breast cancer in May. “It does not just affect me, it affects everybody because someone in our home, in our Auburn family, so I think it is more of a boost to make us go out there and play for this cause and give it our all.”

Edwards, like the rest of the team, is just happy to be able to contribute a small part to the fight.

“They ask the survivors to stand and you see all those people come to their feet, and you still have no idea what each person has gone through,” Edwards said. “This year, I get to stand up. It can a stand for hope, a stand for courage and the fact that you’re even able to stand.

“It’s not a death sentence. It’s a stumbling block. And I just have to work a little harder to get over the top of the mountain.”

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