For two decades, the only Spanish-language cancer support group in the state has been quietly changing lives.

It's a place many never imagined they'd need, but it quickly became a lifeline. 

At the center of it all is Julissa Rios. 

"They told me, 'I have cancer, what do I do? '" Rios said. "What is next? "

Those are the questions she would hear as a case manager at West Side Community Health Services. So, she created the support group La Nueva Esperanza — the New Hope 

Once a month for the last two decades, Rios has seen the circle get bigger and bigger as people looked for a safe space. This small room has become a soft landing for people during their hardest days.

"Every time I come here, it's like injecting life into you," Evelyn Quintro said.

Quintro first found the group in the '90s after a leukemia diagnosis. In 2012, she faced uterine cancer and again in 2022, doctors told her she had breast cancer.

Three diagnoses, three tough battles and each time she found peace within the support group. 

"Whoever is in this position, we feel the same thing, we know it is hard," Quintro said. "If we fight enough, we can win."

Though every story is different and every journey is hard, everyone shows up, using love as medicine.

Cancer may have brought them together, but hope and family keep them coming back.