It was a beautiful morning with sunshine from start to finish, but sadly it was also the most shocking clean-up we've seen since helping Leam Trash Trash Friends with their community litter picks.

What greeted us was nothing short of a sea of litter. In places, rubbish was piled deep, making it clear that this area has been neglected for far too long. It was heartbreaking to see, but rather than be put off, our fantastic team got stuck in and started turning the tide.

A huge thank you to the management team from Sainsbury's for rolling up their sleeves and joining in, to the amazing runners from GoodGym Warwick & Leamington Spa for lending their energy, and the regular litter-picking heroes of Leam Trash Friends, who do an amazing job week in week out.

Thanks also to Sainsbury's for providing much-appreciated refreshments during & afterwards.

By the end of the session, we'd made a real dent in the mess.

Mission stats:

🗑️ 32 sacks of litter collected 🚛 A huge amount of fly-tipped waste removed, including two computers, a sandwich maker, a walking stick and plenty of other discarded rubbish ☣️ 4 used needles safely recovered 🔪 4 knives removed from the site

While there's still plenty of work ahead, every bag collected makes a difference to the local environment and helps make this space safer for everyone who uses it.

A massive thank you to everyone who gave up their time to help. Together, we're proving that many hands really do make light work—even when faced with a mountain of litter. Until next time! 💚🏃‍♀️🧤

A fantastic turnout in Warwick for the Earls Meadow mission, where GoodGymers teamed up with Leam Trash Friends to give this green space a proper refresh.

Armed with litter pickers, bags, and plenty of enthusiasm, the team spread out across surrounding areas, tackling everything from everyday rubbish to some more stubborn surprises.

💥 What we achieved 🔴 Collected an impressive 27 sacks of litter 🔴 Cleared a wide range of fly-tipped items, including a wheel, shower tray, gas cylinder, two bike wheels, and plenty of other dumped debris ☣️ Safely removed 3 canisters, helping make the area safer for everyone 🌱 Why it matters

Earls Meadow is a valued local space, and this session made a visible difference. From clearing hazardous waste to restoring the natural beauty of the area, every bag filled helped create a cleaner, safer environment for the community.

🙌 Community effort

A big shoutout to everyone who joined in to lend a hand. Every contribution counted, and the impact was clear to see by the end.

Great work team—doing good and getting it done 💪

3 Goodgymers returned to Sydenham Drive in Leamington Spa to complete a litter pick.

We started the evening with a jog along the canal, taking in some of the beautiful murals along the route and catching up on each other's weeks including weekend runs, triathlons and the trials and tribulations of work.

Once we got to Sydenham Drive we started our pick and were surprised by how much litter there was. With the weather having been warmer over recent weeks there was evidence of some evening drinking under the trees along the edge of the Drive. Some more unusual finds included a sanding pad for an orbital sander and the old classic of a shopping trolley from nearby Asda.

We inadvertently ended up being a bit of a tourist attraction as a family who introduced themselves as visiting from India were curious to find out what we were doing and then asked to take photos of our group!

With our bags heavy with rubbish we returned to the start, dropped our bags ready for collection by Leam Trash Friends tomorrow and enjoyed a run back along the canal to the pump rooms.

Kudos to James who ran an additional 6km on top of our group run by running to and from the session from home - hope you made it back up the hill James :-)

3 Goodgymers supported Leam Trash Friends on their group run this evening with helping to keep the streets of Leamington rubbish free.

This evening after a quick warm up, we headed out on a nice run along the canal to Eagle Rec. We admired the amazing artwork that decorates the walls on the canal before heading to the Rec for some litter picking. We picked/plogged our way around the perimeter of the Rec whilst catching up on the week's news and discussing the pros and cons of electric vehicles. There was lots of the usual sorts of rubbish - cigarette butts, beer cans, crisp packets etc. We also found a 3 litre milk bottle, a belt and part of a fridge!

From there we returned back to the canal towpath and carried on a few bridges further to Sydenham Drive. From here we picked along Sydenham Drive to St Mary's Road and received words of encouragement from local residents kindly thanking us for helping to keep the area clean :-)

Having dropped the bags at an appropriate spot to be collected we then re-traced our steps back along the canal towpath before finishing our run with a few hills back to the Fat Pug - all good practise for the Regency 10k in just over a week!

So lovely to have a group run in the daylight for the first time this year - looking forward to future weeks when hopefully we will have a bit of sunshine too...

4 Goodgymers supported Leam Trash Friends and helped to clean up their local area by carrying out a litter pick around South Leamington.

After a quick warm up at the Fat Pug we headed out on our 1.5 mile run, taking in the full stretch of beautiful Victoria Park to the start location for tonight's pick along Queensway.

Starting at McDonald's we picked along the full length of Queensway on both sides of the road - mainly collecting food wrappers and bottles. It was a bit squelchy underfoot after the recent rain but thankfully stayed dry for us this evening. We had accidentally brought more rubbish sacks than planned but this was lucky as they were soon getting quite heavy to carry!

We collected 4 bags of rubbish in total and left these for Leam Trash Friends to kindly collect for us before heading back towards town on a slightly different run route that still included going back up Milverton Hill. Even after the hill everyone had a little bit left in the tank for a sprint finish back to the Fat Pug.

Another job well done and it was great catching up on everyone's news from the week including new jobs and cats!

Looking forward to next week when we'll hopefully be returning to the Kenilworth Centre to finish off the gardening task we started last week.

GoodGymers returned to the commyn after the seasonally good weather to clear the litter left from a few parties on the grass.

Becky also completed her 50th good deed by collecting approx 50 bags of dog poop left all over the place and David found the stash of Vodka, whilst michelles litter picker caused some issues being made for the left handed goodgymer. great to have Linda along for the first time in months...