Charity Flyers, a group of private pilots, many of them linked to Rotary, will be in Coimbra on September 15th to support the creation of a Sensory Garden at IPO Coimbra. The pilots will fly to Bissaya Barreto aerodrome in Cernache through a protocol organized with Rotary Club de Coimbra-Saúde. This group has supported humanitarian and social projects in various European countries, such as Tenerife, Greece, the Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia, and in 2026 it was Coimbra's turn.
The garden, designed in partnership with Instituto Português de Oncologia de Coimbra itself, will be conceived as a space of tranquility, isolation, and socializing, providing contact with nature and sensory stimuli of a visual, olfactory, tactile, and sonic nature, suitable for the characteristics of its users. According to Carlos Costa Almeida, surgeon and professor at the Faculty of Medicine and member of Rotary Club Coimbra-Saúde, this is not just an ordinary garden, but rather a place therapeutically intended for cancer patients and their families, for moments of relaxation during the difficult times of illness.
The project will be developed with the collaboration of specialists from the Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra, also drawing on input from healthcare professionals and the opinions of patients and companions who may benefit from it. The space and maintenance will be the responsibility of IPO, while the initial funds will come from donations from Charity Flyers and Rotary Club de Coimbra-Saúde, which also hopes to receive contributions from the public to achieve the goal of humanizing healthcare at Instituto Português de Oncologia de Coimbra.
