The grateful 8 recreate the doctors date

Before setting off we had a quick warm up outside the Student Union and all discussed what we hoped we would be having for dinner - Beth surprised everyone with porridge (apparently a common dinner choice!) and Danny hadn't made his mind up yet so we all helped him out with some ideas! With some food motivation on the horizon we began the run...

Our task this week was to give Groundswell NHS cards to the homeless so they could access the local GP without having to provide a proof of address. Keeping in mind the vulnerability of the people involved we decided we would run along the river to to get our legs working before slowing it down and splitting off into groups to hand out the cards in a gentle and approachable manner.

We ran from the strand up to Blackfriars bridge, crossed the river and made our way back down towards Waterloo. We crossed the jubilee gardens and headed towards the station and under the iMax in hope to find some people who would appreciate the NHS cards. It was a slow start, and despite previously noticing a number of homeless people around this area we had only given out two cards after the first 15 minutes. We kept morale high, hoping to distribute as many cards as possible, but also grateful that there weren't as many people sleeping on the streets as we had hoped. Michael cleverly spotted a sleeping bag on the floor in the distance which turned out to be a couple sleeping, so as to not disturb their peace he left them a card next to their belongings. We crossed back over the river at Westminster and handed out a few cards on the home run back along the strand.

As we were cooling down and stretching we discussed the task and all agreed that it was very worthwhile, with each person we approached being incredibly thankful for our reach out. It was also surprising that most people hadn't heard of the scheme, so to be able to create this awareness was a wonderful experience. As well as a fantastic task, we managed to cover a whopping 6.5km!

Fab work today everyone, I hope you enjoyed your salmon, stirfry, porridge, fruit and Guinness (!) for dinner :) see you next week when we are scrubbing the deck of a rooftop garden!