Another mild evening greeted nine GoodGym Brighton runners as they returned to action. This time, we visited the Change Grow Live (CGL) Brighton and Hove Recovery Service at Richmond House, which offers a safe, non-judgemental space for drug and alcohol recovery. Our host, Rita, has been instrumental in creating a green oasis here, and GoodGym was ready to lend a helping hand.

This Tuesday’s mission was to tackle the overgrown bushes in the front parking area. Armed with loppers and GoodGym-hand pruners 😊, we got to work cutting down top branches and pruning them back. To speed things up, we formed an efficient GoodGym "human chain," passing the green garden waste down the line. We were even illuminated by professional studio LED lights—usually used by CGL for video and photography—making it look like a live-streamed production of doing good and getting fit!

After sweeping up the final leaves, Rita invited us to the opening of the "Three Frames" (Object. Person. Place.) photography exhibition. Organized by CGL as part of Photo Fringe 2026, it runs every Saturday in October at Richmond House. The exhibition showcases powerful work produced entirely by service users exploring their personal recovery stories.

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From our occasional meeting point at the Peace Statue, it was a short and sweet 300m trek for seven Brightonian GoodGymers to Waterloo Street Community Garden, including newbie Chris - welcome!

Once there, we got stuck into some enthusiastic bulb planting, putting down the groundwork now for a colourful spring display.

We had a friendly black cat keeping a close eye on proceedings. But further investigation revealed that said cat is the reason the garden doesn’t have any bird feeders: our feline friend enjoys playing with them (the local birds, that is, not the feeding devices).

With all the bulbs planted across big pots, little pots, round pots and long pots, it was time to head to nearby Bottoms Rest for a well-earned drink, post-run recovery and a chit chat.

What a purr-fect evening.

A small, yet mighty group of 7 GoodGymers ran and cycled to Vale Park in Portslade to do one of the more favourite tasks, helping out Friends of Vale Park with their glorious rose beds, which are dotted all over the community Park.

We spent time weeding the rose beds, and doing some dead heading in order to try and promote autumn blooms before the winter draws in.

The turn of the seasons was very evident, with dusk closing in and a slight chill in the air by the end of the task. We had built up a good pile of weeds and made the roses look their gorgeous best again.

After the task the team walked and jogged the short distance to the Foghorn pub for a well deserved social, and to celebrate Ruth's 50th good deed!

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Early birds and new coastal defence enthusiasts Rosie, Ben and Ruth made their way to King Alfred's in Hove this morning, to take part in the community litter-pick organised by the Leave No Trace Brighton team. The event was in partnership with Mackley and Van Oord - the people behind the Brighton Marina to River Adur Coastal Defence Scheme which has seen lots of activity on the Hove seafront over the summer; with diggers and dredgers dumping and maneuvering tens of thousands of tons of shingle.

There was a prize for whoever found the 'weirdest' item along the newly expanded beach, but sadly for our GoodGym cohort it was just the usual array of plastic debris. After handing in our haul, we enjoyed a leisurely sunny stroll along the prom to begin our working days.

Leave No Trace are a group of local beach lovers that are campaigning to raise awareness and action to protect our beaches and green spaces. Their aim is to educate, encourage, and empower individuals, communities, and businesses to reduce, recycle or properly dispose of rubbish - so that our beaches, green spaces and seas can be clean and tidy for everyone to enjoy.