Borderline Books is an amazing charity, so much so that I'm not sure how we haven't come across them before. They take books that are no longer required by publishers, shops, libraries and the general public, and donate them to organisations working with people who, for whatever reason, are unable to buy books for themselves. They find creative ways of using books that others may consider outdated or a bit shabby and also do their best to promote literacy, recognising the long term benefits to society and individuals. Would you believe they have given away 41,000 books so far in 2026. I'm a sucker for books and reading so this was right up my street!

Today's task however, was a long way from sitting down in a cosy chair with a good book, although we did marvel at the number of books in the store room as we walked through to the site of our task. Behind the book store room was a storage area full (and I mean full!) of very old and dusty boxes. These needed to be flattened so that they can be taken away to a skip to allow the store room to be used more productively. Richard, Aimee and I were joined by regular Borderline Books volunteer Hannah, and although we didn't finish the task, we did make a lot of progress, flattening around 75% of the boxes and creating semi-neat piles of flattened cardboard. Aimee noted that banana boxes are particularly robust! It was useful to chat about other local charities that we might be able to help and other ways that we might be able to help Borderline Books in future. I admit to feeling some trepidation over what once-living creatures we might find in the boxes. Thankfully there was nothing more than a few moths!

Huge kudos to Richard who immediately went off to lead this week's group run! There's a task this Saturday - check out the website - and look out for future visits to Borderline books!

Ten GoodGymers descended upon Stepney Bank Stables on an overcast, but dry, Monday evening to continue the job of painting the fence at the arena.

Welcome to first time attendees Rory, Nicole and Sofia. It was lovely to meet you all and we hope to welcome you back again soon. At least you know how to find us now Sofia! Well done for persevering and tracking us down.

Well done to Claire and Arie for completing their second GoodGym good deeds. We hope to see you in the red t-shirts next time!

The fence received another good amount of paint tonight but the job wasn't quite complete. The darkness moved in rather quickly, much more so than two weeks ago at the same location. Everyone did their best in the gloom, with perhaps one more session needed to finish the job.

It was a busy night at Stepney Bank Stables as 12 Newcastle University students, from a wide variety of places including Buffalo (New York), Nova Scotia, Costa Rica and even Coventry joined us. They joined some of our regulars in painting the fence at Stepney Bank Stables' arena, filling some goody bags for a party and smoothing some walls. Everyone worked hard and some good progress was made!

Sara from Stepney Bank Stables was as welcoming as ever, giving us a tour of the stables, which involved meeting several of the resident horses. GoodGymers new and old always relish meeting the four-legged residents, one or two of whom were a bit grumpy tonight as their evening meal hadn't been served yet.

We'll be back at the stables in two weeks to try to make some more progress with painting the fence.

Five GoodGymers visited The Lighthouse Project in Byker for the third time recently, to continue our mission to rid their gardens of weeds.

We welcomed Norb to GoodGym Newcastle for the first time. He really enjoyed the run to The Lighthouse Project up the hills and steps!

We removed a large amount of weeds across quite a large area, the biggest issue being finding bags big enough to put them in. For the first time in quite some time on a Monday night, we got absolutely soaked as the rain came pouring down towards the end. We got particularly wet on the run back to Stepney Bank Stables!

Another successful evening though and we'll be back at The Lighthouse Project next week. Please join us if you can!

I was run director at Whitley bay junior parkrun on Sunday. It was busy week with over 200 young runners completing the run. It's also lovely to get involved with junior parkrun!