This evening, 7 GoodGymers met at Stepney Bank Stables on a cold but dry Monday evening for a jog up to The Lighthouse Project in Byker where we were back after nearly 2 months! We welcomed Holly, another Newcastle medical student on her first (hopefully of many) GoodGym mission as well as Selim, a PhD student from the University too on his second GoodGym mission, proudly sporting his new GoodGym t-shirt, Ewan and Ruby, another two medical students who have now become regulars already, Scott, Richard, Elena (myself, writing my first ever report stepping up to my new TaskForce role!) and last but not least, Zach, GoodGymer number 8, joined us a bit later after circling round the centre until he found the one unlocked access to it!

This was our first group mission there since the clock changed back to GMT time and we’d underestimated how well lit the youth centre was. Before we knew it, we’d filled up 4 large bags with dry leaves and weeds from the surrounding green area we had trimmed significantly last time - it is rewarding for us to see this place improve so much every time we go! Finally, we all jogged back to the Stables via a questionable ‘shortcut’ that felt if anything longer than the usual route but a perfect excuse to start the week with some miles in the bag!

Please join us for another visit to The Lighthouse Project next week!

Nine GoodGymers made their way to St James' Park on a cold but dry Monday evening for the Newcastle United v Everton match, to raise money for the Newcastle Foodbank.

For almost all of us it was the first time volunteering at the stadium in this way and everyone seemed to enjoy their time raising money. Welcome to Ewan and well done on your first GoodGym good deed. Admirable dedication having recently suffered a dislocated shoulder. Kudos to Elena for coming along to volunteer before a long shift at work, and for her photography skills!

Lots of generous football fans donated lots of money, £10 and £20 notes were not uncommon, which should make a big difference to the foodbank.

Six GoodGymers headed out from Stepney Bank Stables to spread the word about GoodGym with some leaflets. The Tyne Bridge is closed this week, which made actually getting to Stepney Bank Stables a bit of a challenge in itself!

Welcome to El, attending a GoodGym session for the first time. We hope to see you again soon in the red t-shirt. Thank you very much for your efforts tonight.

Everyone did a good job delivering leaflets around Jesmond, a place that we very rarely, if ever, deliver leaflets. The first new sign up to GoodGym had arrived by 8pm, hopefully the first of many this week.

We're collecting for Newcastle Foodbank at the Newcastle v Everton match next week. Please note the earlier thsn usual start time.

Five GoodGymers headed out from Stepney Bank Stables to the Byker area of Newcastle to pick up as much litter as possible. It was new territory for most of our student GoodGymers, none of whom had heard of the Byker Wall. We got a good close up view of it as we collected litter between Stepney Bank Stables and Shields Road in Byker.

We filled around 13 bin liners between us, leaving the area looking much tidier by the end of the evening.

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!

A useful three hours was spent at Gateshead Recruitment Fair, at Gateshead Leisure Centre.

It was nice to talk to people from Connected Voice and One Strawberry Lane, as well as bumping into Hannah from Host Nation for the second time in three weeks.