Remember, remember the 5th of November. The air hadn't yet smelled of gunpowder when I set off on a 16 km run with a task in the middle. That smoke would come later, when the fireworks started.

I called Mr T as usual before leaving for my mission, only to learn that he'd recently been bedbound and wouldn't be able to open the door for me this time. Instead, you could say he'd given me my North Star to follow – except that I was heading south-west. A white, red or black star would guide me to find the way into the building

I didn't look to the stars in the night sky. Hoping for anything other than an overcast sky in November in the UK seemed a bit of a stretch. On my way through the heart of Hounslow, though, I spotted something else that reminded me of stars: the indistinct festive lights along the High Street. To me, they could just as easily have been put up for Diwali as for Christmas. If they were meant to mark a religious celebration, they were surprisingly agnostic.

Eventually, I reached Mr T's building and it was time to crack the lockbox. But which one? From Mr T's description, I'd expected there to be about 15 fewer lockboxes than I actually found. I had to rely on his descriptions of the signs to narrow down the options. The only thing I was certain of was the code. I tried it on the lockbox with the red arrow (not quite a star), the white X (sort of a star with a missing limb) and the black asterisk (now THAT is a star!). One of them eventually released a key fob, and shortly afterwards I was in!

Inside, I found almost double the usual Mr T recycling haul waiting outside his flat, as he hadn't had any GoodGym visits for a few weeks. This time, I had to make two trips to dispose of it all, and I was rather happy to have the key fob so I could let myself back into the building.

With the assignment complete, I returned the fob to the keysafe, called Mr T to confirm the job was done, and set off on the run home to enjoy the rest of my evening.

🎂 Last night we celebrated a very special milestone – 10 years of GoodGym Hounslow. What better way to mark a decade of doing good and getting fit than with a festive task followed by a birthday party?

But first, a huge shout-out to Alanna, who clocked up her 100th good deed! An amazing achievement. Well done, Alanna, that's a really impressive amount of litter picking, tree planting, wall painting and squats!

Our task for the evening was at the beautiful Chiswick House and Gardens. Our job was to weave Christmas wreaths using wisteria gathered from the grounds. Everyone's creativity come out, and the results were beautiful. The profits from the wreath-making go straight back into supporting the charity, and we now have the skills to make our own wreaths for our front doors this year. Win - win!

Then it was time to swap the gloves for glasses and head off to celebrate. It was wonderful to see so many of you there, sharing stories, laughter and memories from the last ten years. Back in November 2016, GoodGym Hounslow became the 26th GoodGym area to launch. We gathered at the Town Hall to clear leaves on Turnham Green, but could not possibly know what lay ahead.

From those early days of one, two or three runners we have grown into something truly special. Today a core group turn up week after week to do some good and get active - and,of course there's always the pub afterwards!

Over the decade, you've clocked up an astonishing 7,000+ good deeds, helping charities, community groups and local projects right across the borough. The jobs have been wonderfully varied: but GoodGym has always been about much more than the nuts and bolts of it. It's about the friendships, the support and the community -we've celebrated the good times and supported each other through the harder ones.

And while we're sometimes accused of having an unusual enthusiasm for destruction, what we've been doing is building a wonderful community.

A huge thank you to all whether it's you've done one good deed or one thousand. No job is too muddy, too cold or too strange for you! Ten years, thousands of good deeds, countless friendships and innumerable Old Packhorse prawn crackers - here's to everyone who has been part of the journey. Happy 10th birthday, GoodGym Hounslow! ❤️

The details of tonight's top-secret mission for Hobbayne Charity must remain classified to anyone who wasn't there. However, the commander of our very special unit has agreed to answer a few frequently asked questions about a typical GoodGym operation.

How do you get a special forces crew through a small building hosting two council meetings with residents, without being noticed?

Smuggle them through a network of secret corridors.

How do you reduce your greenhouse gas emissions?

Get a couple of GoodGymers to carry away an electricity generator and a canister of diesel, and lend them to a local church.

How do you prepare a charity office for a makeover?

Recruit a team of safe crackers to move the safes out of the painters' way. Or, better, call in GoodGymers to relocate them while keeping all the valuables safely locked inside!

How do you deliver sacks of teddy bears to a social worker supporting children with special needs when you don't know the exact address?

Send in GoodGym Santa and his trusty helper. Santa always finds his way to those who deserve it!

How do you fit long MDF planks into a commercial waste bin?

Call in a GoodGym martial artist to karate-kick them into more manageable pieces.

If you'd like to witness GoodGym's undercover operations first-hand, obviously, we can't tell you where to go. Definitely not to the dark corners of Walpole Park on a Tuesday night (wink, wink).