The atmosphere was electric on Wednesday evening as Newcastle United attempted (successfully as it turned out) to reach the EFL Cup Final. All along Strawberry Place, NUFC Foodbank volunteers were collecting for the cause.

Lucy, Louise and Richard met at marquee just after 6pm to collect their buckets. They joined the other volunteers in raising money for the foodbank almost right up until kick off time. It's amazing how generous some people can be, whilst also being a little surprising how drunk the odd person was.

John, who manages the foodbank, had a long chat with some of the GoodGymers tonight, learning that we don't tend to spend much, or any, time in gyms, and that we help a whole host of organisations in many different ways.

I was so excited for our group session tonight as in six years of GoodGym Newcastle it’s a rare thing to get something completely new. We changed the format a bit tonight to meet at Central Station before making our way to St James’ Park for the England match!

We had been asked by the amazing NUFC Fans foodbank to help boost their volunteer numbers outside of the England warm up match where they collect donations of cash and food. These events are pretty special as before the match everyone is guaranteed to be in a good mood! Armed with hi-vis and buckets we found a sunny spot near Shearers bar and soaked up the atmosphere. It wasn’t long before donations started coming in and we got to see how generous the football community can be. The time absolutely flew by between discussions of fond football memories and being ad-hoc stewards helping people to find their seats. One man was so grateful to Damu and I that he donated £10!

I’ll definitely keep an eye out to help this charity again as it was brilliant fun and really made a difference. There was also the added bonus of the burger van aroma and the roar of the crowd as we left. Magic!