LUNA – Latinos Unidos Por Un Nuevo Amanecer

By Viviam Sifontes, MPA, M.Ed.
Clinical Trials Navigation Educator

Latinos Unidos Por Un Nuevo Amanecer (Latinos United by A New Awakening), commonly known as LUNA, is a not-for-profit organization founded more than 20 years ago by a Latina survivor of breast cancer. Her vision anticipated that LUNA would become a leading local pioneer in community services and advocacy for Latinx people with cancer. Although the original intention was to serve Latina women with breast cancer and their caregivers, we opened our scope to Latinx individuals facing any type of cancer.

Our mission is to provide emotional support and health education to cancer patients, survivors and caregivers within the Tampa Bay area and central Florida counties. We promote awareness about cancer prevention, treatment availability and access to quality health care within our community. We empower our participants with our educational, social and supportive emotional health programs that are available to them free of cost.

We were assured that LUNA would be a front runner in this arena, but we never predicted serving patients and survivors from other countries as far as Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela and more. Our star program, Campamento Alegria — a three-day oncology camp for Latina women — has opened our catchment area internationally and we are certainly very proud of our reach. Our camp is the only oncology camp in Spanish in Florida.

Thanks to Moffitt Cancer Center, we are also able to provide Spanish support groups via Zoom.

If you or anyone you know is facing cancer and would like to be part of an amazing organization, call 813-956-2978 or email us at LUNAFLORIDAINFO@gmail.com.