Yesterday evening GoodGym Wandsworth gathered at Mary Magdalen Catholic Church to help Age UK Wandsworth spread a little festive joy at their annual carol concert. With doors opening to a bustling flow of guests, the team quickly swung into action.

Sharlie and Jessie braved the cold and guided people to the right door with warm smiles — and in Jessie’s case, a fantastically festive (and slightly ridiculous) gingerbread-man hat that brought instant cheer to everyone!

Inside the church, Ana and Alicia were on hand to support guests as they found their seats, helping people up the stairs and temporary access ramps.

Once the carols began, the festive spirit truly took hold. The whole team joined in the singing with impressive enthusiasm — proving that GoodGymmers are not only helpful but fully committed to the Christmas vibe. The audience were also treated to a wonderful performance by Unity Voices choir!

At the end of the service, Ali, Tracey, and Alicia helped to collect donations with charm and good humour, before guiding guests to the kitchen for festive refreshments. Everyone rolled up their sleeves to serve mince pies and mulled wine, making sure each guest felt looked after and welcome.

It was a lovely way to embrace the season of giving and it was especially great to welcome Alicia, Jessie and Sharlie to their first GoodGym task! Age UK’s service users left with full of Christmas spirt (and mince pies!) and the GoodGym team left glowing from a task well done!

On a wet Monday night in Wandsworth we bought the festive cheer, beginning with a warm up and a survey about Christmas films - do they make you ho ho ho or are they just about as fun as an over boiled brussel sprout? The grinches just lost out in the votes, and the verdict is in - Christmas movies are here to stay!

It was great to see some new faces along to our run - a huge welcome to Emma and Giulio who came along to their very first session. Give them a big festive cheer!

Our job for the evenings was at Larkhall park, a regular location for GoodGym visits. Every time we come we work hard on various spots throughout the park alongside the regular volunteers who help keep it a safe and welcoming green space for local people.

Last night we divided into two groups. The first team was to tackle the big bed at the entrance of the park, the second went off to help shift a massive pile of soil and to clear an area of leaves.

Before long it was action stations and everybody was hard at work. Jordan and Felix took on the massive soil shifting challenge, while Jason debuted his fabulous new invention - the spade light. Quick, somebody get it patented. It only took 40 minutes for us to make a big difference and the Friends of Larkhall Park group appreciated how much got done. Well done team!

The fun didn't stop there though - there was just enough time to squeeze in a circuits based fitness station in the playground. It featured squats, ladder runs, curtsy lunges and plenty of laughs.

Next week it's our final group run of 2026. I'm just finalising the task, so keep an eye out for the sign up page. We'll follow this with a social at a local pub - time to get those vocal chords warmed up!

There are plenty of opportunities to spread the Christmas joy this week, including:

• Helping collect donations and other jobs at Battersea's oldest church tonight. We really need a couple more volunteers for this - and you will be rewarded by celebrity speakers and mulled wine!

• Supporting a carol concert for the elderly on Thursday

• Putting up Christmas decorations at a church in Battersea on Saturday morning

For our first run of the month, and with the countdown to Christmas well and truly underway, we were back at the beautiful Doddington roof garden.

To kick off the night we welcomed Salaheddine to his first session - lovely to meet you Salaheddine and great having you join us last night!

We did a warm up and discussed our favourite Christmas songs, which ranged from Jingle Bells (in multiple languages) to East 17's classic, Stay. A very diverse mix of festive bangers!

We ran down to the task, stopping to check out one of the tasks for the evening - a massive tonne bag of soil that was looking for a good home! With our eyes on the prize we carried on to the garden, where half the group grabbed tools and went back for the soil, and the other half got on with jobs on site.

While Sophie, Salaheddine, Jordan, Johnnie and Jason tackled the composting and path digging at the roof garden, Catherine, Felix, Matthew, Annabel, Letizia, Steph and Beth were busy digging soil into tugs and wheelbarrows before transporting the heavy mud the kilometer back to Doddington - talk about a good workout! Great to see that the soil - which turned out to be fantastic quality - was put to good use rather than being wasted.

After all that hard work it was almost time to wrap up - but not before a fitness session which really tested our lower body. Featuring pogos, curtsy lunges, squats and jacks we did a five minute finisher which challenged those leg muscles! Great work everybody.

Half of us ran back for stretches while the other half successfully represented GoodGym at the quiz - a job well done all round.

I mentioned a lovely mission happening next Tuesday at the oldest church in Battersea. If you fancy a night helping out at this beautiful location raising funds for the brilliant Katherine Lowe Settlement then please sign up here.

It was another chilly evening in Wandsworth but we still had lots of wonderful people turn up to do some good! As we were about a month out from Christmas (yes, really!) we discussed our favourite festive movies with a wide range taking our fancy. Elf came out on top however and we set off to spread some Goodgym cheer.

We were off to Balham nursery to help them share some flyers to ensure local residents were aware of the great services they offer. We covered off lots of nearby streets (admiring lots of lovely wreaths on doors as we went) and flew through our flyers before we knew it.

We managed a quick spot of fitness on the Common before it was back to base (and off home to get Elf back on the TV). Well done Wandsworth on a great effort and many kms and letterboxes covered!

We had one of our biggest challenges to date in Wandsworth last night, and what's more it was a time crunch situation!

The task: to move ten huge metal orange planters filled with wet clay and stones to their permanent new homes around the Doddington estate. Within 40 minutes. Using only one manual hydraulic lifter.

Did we manage it? Read on to find out more...

What was meant to be a quick Saturday morning task soon emerged as something a lot more complicated! We hadn't realised that the planters, which are bright, cheerful and massive would also be full! They were also a lot heavier and unwieldy then we had expected. We discovered it had taken a crane to get them there in the first place. On top of that, it turned out the dolly we had been given to use had two flat tyres! Things were not looking in our favour.

So, we drafted in the big guns. We shifted our scheduled task for the evening to another night, and arranged to come down with a bigger group last night. Elizabeth, who runs the hub, had also managed to get her hands on a bigger duty lifter from the council - so this time we had a fighting chance!

We divided up into groups and began the job - knowing we had a limited amount of time with the borrowed lifter. If they weren't put in the right place last night, it was never going to happen.

So with Ali taking the helm of the power lifter, half the team began the massive job of moving the smaller planters around the square. Meanwhile the rest got on with shoveling out the soil in what affectionately became known as 'the beast' - the biggest planter of them all.

Time was ticking on, and we decided to forego our usual fitness session in the hope of finishing the task. Besides which, the job was a pretty hardcore workout in itself!

With just minutes to spare the last planter was ceremoniously lowered into position, and I'm happy to report that all ten of them found beautiful new homes where they will cheer up the square and increase bodiversity - and all GG toes and fingers remained intact!

Fantastic job in tricky conditions - well done everybody.

Dates for your diary!

• This weekend we have a lovely community mission in a local nature reserve
• Our upcoming Christmas party on the 15th December
• Next week's session to help deliver flyers for a local nursery

Quiz time: what's the fastest growing thing in Doddington Roof Garden? Answer: Melissa's to do list of course! But who better than GG Wandsworth to tackle it!? On Saturday the team had two tasks - move some planters donated by the council and general jobs in the garden. The first task turned out to be bigger than expected, as the planters arrived full to the brim of heavy clay soil. Felix, Jordan and Ana emptied one and shimmied it to it's new location, but the rest will need the Monday night crew (look out for a task coming soon!) Ana and I then swept up leaves and added them to the in-situ compost along with some of the clay soil from the planters downstairs. Lifting and moving those trugs of soil was certainly a work out!!