The chatter had simmered down, but the energy in the room still lingered. There was a former University of Alabama gymnast present, one from the 1983 team that gave the Crimson Tide its first-ever national championship berth. She was basically a superstar, and the 2009 batch of young women were all eyes and ears, ready to listen. Annie Wilhide Dziadon was there to tell her story.

Except it wasn’t about the glitz and the glam that comes with being an Alabama gymnastics Hall of Famer. Rather, it was about a reality only select women are forced to live with.

“I took off my wig the moment I started talking to them,” Dziadon said. “You could see the shocked look on their faces.”

Reality quickly sank in. A breast cancer survivor has always been invited as a guest speaker before the Crimson Tide’s annual Power of Pink meet. It’s a tradition that remains today, as another one spoke to the team leading up to Friday’s meet.

Thirteen years later, there is still no cure.

Those three words

Everything changed within a month’s time.

When Dziadon went for her annual mammogram in December 2007, she was told there was nothing to be worried about. The doctor found a cyst, but since it was reoccurring, it wasn’t a big deal.

No more than a week or so later, Dziadon felt a lump in her right breast while showering. She went back in to have it checked. A biopsy was ordered. The results were indisputable.

“Those are the hardest words, of course, that anyone ever hears,” Dziadon said. “When you sit down and they say, ‘You have cancer.’ ”

In January 2008, Dziadon was officially diagnosed with breast cancer. It was one of the more aggressive forms called HER2-positive. Thankfully, it had not reached her lymph nodes.

As a 46-year-old mother, Dziadon was afraid to tell her three teenage boys. She called the one person she always knew she could count on: her Alabama coach, the legendary Sarah Patterson.

“That was always the feeling I had: Who can I talk to?” Dziadon said. “She would be one of the first people I shared personal successes and personal crises with.”

Patterson, with daughters of her own, reassured Dziadon that kids are resilient and she should just be honest with them. Dziadon took her coach’s advice and told her children.

“One of their first questions was, ‘Does this mean you’re going to die?’ ” she said. “No. No, I am not. I have no plans of doing that.”

A battle plan was in place to ensure that didn’t happen. Dziadon endured 16 sessions of chemotherapy, 12 weeks of radiation and weekly Herceptin treatments that directly targeted her specific form of breast cancer for an entire year.

On top of that, Dziadon also underwent a lumpectomy to remove a portion of her breast. When the surgeon couldn’t extract all of the cancerous tissue, she went back to and had a total mastectomy, the removal of the entire breast.

Only after all of that did Dziadon receive an all-clear. She’s now 55 years old, an associate director at the University of West Florida, and has been cancer-free for five years.

“You’re stronger than you think you are,” Dziadon said. “You can do more than you can think you can do.”

You’re never alone

When Dziadon joined the Crimson Tide in 1980 with the rest of Patterson’s first recruiting class, she didn’t just become a member of the team. She was adopted into a family, one that would continue to grow decades after she retired her leotards.

Her gymnastics family came in clutch as Dziadon’s duel with breast cancer got more and more serious.

“The hardest part was continually fighting to keep positive because you have to,” she said. “Even when you took a step backward, take two steps forward.”

An extra push always helped.

Pink roses sent from fellow UA alums awaited Dziadon every time she returned home after chemotherapy. Barbara Mack Harding called whenever she saw Dziadon live on Facebook late at night because it meant she was having trouble sleeping. Penny Hauschild sent cards that never failed to make Dziadon laugh.

The list of people who reached out with support went on, and the shocking part was many of them didn’t even graduate with Dziadon. In fact, when she was a senior, Harding was a sophomore and Hauschild was a freshman, but those two constantly checked in.

“You have your own family, but then you have this gymnastics family,” Dziadon said. “Your teammates are as important to you as anyone else in your life.”

Without the support Dziadon received from other past and present Crimson Tide members, days would have dragged longer. Recovery would have felt harder -- almost impossible. She relied on these relationships, even if they didn’t exist beforehand.

That kind of foundation was built by Patterson a long time ago, and it still stands strong today. Alabama coach Dana Duckworth continued to build and strengthen what was passed down to her three years ago, especially when it comes to the Power or Pink initiative.

“At some point, any one of us can be affected by breast cancer,” Duckworth said. “We want the ladies to know that we’re here for them if they ever go through it themselves.”

Dziadon is proof.

Under the lights

Not much compares to being able to stand up in Coleman Coliseum as a breast cancer survivor, mainly because each individual realizes he or she is not alone in this fight.

The disease does not discriminate.

“It brings tears to my eyes because it is overwhelming in that sense,” Dziadon said. “It’s way more than you walking out there. It’s the millions of people you’re representing.”

Although she never got to experience a Power of Pink meet as a gymnast herself -- the first was in 2005, well after she left Tuscaloosa -- Dziadon has attended two. She walked in 2009 and 2013, marking the end of her first and fifth year with breast cancer.

Dziadon looks forward to possibly walking again next year, as it will mark 10 years since her original diagnosis. She wants to hit all the milestones, but she also has an ulterior motive. She loves meeting the latest crop of Alabama gymnasts and breast cancer survivors.

Those moments before introductions are irreplaceable for both parties.

“That’s the best part, back in the tunnel where you’re getting to know the person you’re walking out with and they’re getting to know you,” senior Mackenzie Valentin said. “It really just puts a name and a face to this cause.”

Sometimes that’s unnecessary.

Vernell Thomas was able to fly down from New Jersey for the annual pink meet in 2015, but that trip alone was more than senior Aja Sims could ever have asked for: She was able to escort her aunt, who is now a 10-year survivor, onto the circle A and share her world.

“I saw the smile on her face,” Sims said. “It made me really happy.”

Other times, that’s not possible – and not because of distance.

As a freshman, Maddie Desch is about to experience her first Power of Pink home meet, and there isn’t a cause she’d be more proud to support. Her grandmother, Joan, fought breast cancer. She had a double mastectomy to conquer the disease, but she passed away due to different reasons.

When the survivors stand among the crowd to be recognized, Desch will be thinking of her grandmother.

“That will hit close to home because she was such a fighter,” she said. “It will be really special.”

Forever a survivor

Forget all the titles: six national championships, nine conference championships and 31 regional championships. Forget this year’s record: 2-3. Forget it all.

Because for one meet, that’s not the center focus.

“We may be competing gymnastics, but there are people fighting for their lives,” said Desch, who’s just 19 years old and has competed for Team USA. “That really puts things into perspective.”

The Power of Pink initiative raised more than $155,000 for the DCH Breast Cancer Fund this past fall alone. Overall, it has accumulated $1.8 million since the whole thing started in 2004.

It’s not just about awareness. It’s about actually making a difference.

“It’s the Power of Pink because it’s powerful,” Duckworth said.

Friday marks the Crimson Tide’s 13th pink meet at Alabama. Patterson and the gymnastics program may have started the concept, but it expanded within UA athletics in 2009. Now, all women’s sports at the university have their own pink outing. Many of the men’s teams do, too.

It eventually grew into a nationwide cause. Other colleges picked it up. High schools joined in. Professional sports have embraced it.

“Well, that just sends the message that the cause is everywhere,” Duckworth said. “I don’t think there’s a single person, really, that hasn’t been affected or knows someone -- a family member or a friend -- that’s been affected by breast cancer. It’s that relevant.”

Someone’s stage in the process never matters either.

Dziadon admits she was reluctant to acknowledge any praise during her path to recovery; she would only accept it at the very end. Now she recognizes how wrong that attitude was. When it comes to fighting and beating any form of cancer, there is no set time frame. Count the days, months or years. Tally the seconds, minutes or hours.

Better yet, it starts the moment that first diagnosis is made.

“You’re here right now, and you’re here today,” Dziadon said. “You are a survivor.”