It takes a special sort of person to give up their bank holiday Monday to help out a local community association, but that's exactly what eight GoodGymers did yesterday! What a bunch of holiday heroes.

A few of us met at our regular spot at the BAC. It had been pretty drizzly but we were optimistic the rain was going to stop....any minute. We should have known better - it was an English bank holiday after all!

We ran down to the Doddington Estate where we were met by an enthusiastic bunch of local people who had already made a head start. It was a bit like beautiful chaos, with a huge store room of donations needing to be sorted and laid out for people in the community to help themselves.

It didn't take long for us to get stuck in. Outside the team was folding and categorising all the clothes and toys, whilst inside the store room there was a lot of shifting and carrying to be done.

Despite the increasingly heavy rain there were plenty of passers by who were delighted to find just the right things ready for them to take home. Before long the place looked a lot more organised, but there was just one last job to do - and it was a big one!

We were tasked with moving the huge cooking station complete with many panes of glass right across the estate to the community centre. Luckily it was on wheels - well, at least it was to begin with. There were lots of bumps and pavements to contend with, and a couple of the wheels fell victim to the terrain. Still, we managed to make it there in one piece and with all glass intact. Amazing job!

Next week we're back to normal timing and we're off to de-bramble a local school. See you there!

On Saturday, I joined residents of the Royal Road housing estate to help plant various plants around the estate.

I arrived just after 2 pm. I was within a small group that initially started to dig up sections of the ground so we could insert the plants into the ground.

We then planted a range of plants including Geraniums, Euphorbias and Bergonias.

I stayed to help for around 90 minutes before departing. They were thankful for my help during this time.