10 goodgymmers ran, walked and cycle over to the Brighthelm Centre for a indoors, winter, cleaning mission.

We welcomed new goodgymmer Jen for her first mission and visitor Ricky over from Worthing!

The Brighthelm* Centre serves a wide range of charities, public health and local groups. We've had a long term partnership with this centre dating back to our first ever session in 2017. They run regular Zumba classes and tonight we left at the same time the Brighton Men's Gay Chorus arrived, through a very busy reception area!

The focus for the task was to wipe down skirting boards, clean the bathrooms and give the staircase areas a good clean. We were given magic white sponges for using on the skirting to avoid spreading the paint and vast quantities of blue cleaning paper and sponges for everything else.

Swiftly splitting into groups of 2 and 3 we made short work of the grimy skirting boards and toilets. We gathered outside for a quick group photo and a peptalk from Stefania before heading off to the skirting boards of our own.

*Did you know that Brighton is referred to as Brighthelmstone in the Domesday book in 1086. Brighthelm was a name and "tun" was the saxon for "town", so Brighthelm's town.

Last Tuesday evening, for our Brighton GoodGym’s regular weekly group session, the rain couldn't dampen our spirits. We saw a winter-record turnout, with 17 GoodGymers walking, running, and cycling through the downpour to reach the Fitzherbert Hub. The gang included: Rob – happily returning after a busy time at work😊; Ricky – visiting GoodGymer from Worthing on a 200 good deeds + 250 parkruns mission for 2026; and, David – new GoodGymer who opened the doors of the venue and all its cupboards needing some action. It was time for some cleanup duty! 😉

It was great to be back at The Real Junk Food Project Brighton - an organisation we’ve long admired and that we love supporting for their mission to feed the community using surplus food.

Here is Ricky’s report - A Visitor’s Perspective on his first GoodGym Task with the Brighton group:

*“Yesterday, I had the opportunity to join a Brighton GoodGym task as a visitor from Worthing. I have been meaning to do this for some time, but it never quite coincided with logistics after work. Everyone was very friendly and although I had to trail behind the running group due to only being equipped for the day job (and having run already) it didn’t take that long to reach the task.

*I had heard about the Fitzherbert Centre before but had never been inside so it was interesting to find out how it is now co-operated by four different charitable organisations.

*I found someone to work with, and we set about cleaning one of the toilets before going back into the main room to join in with the others. It turned out to be a small world, discovering my cleaning buddy was a friend of someone in my Goodgym Worthing group. I also met another who I had previously got chatting to spontaneously on a train when one or both of us must have been dressed for running!

I hope to return for future tasks when circumstances permit and one day I will be able to run when not wearing or carrying anything that might impede me!”

Thanks Ricky, and all. Let’s keep the momentum going for some more sparkling sessions! HERE’s what’s on at GoodGym Brighton in the next few weeks.

I volunteered as a timekeeper at junior parkrun in Queens Park on a very wet and blustery Sunday morning. Despite the heavy rain, the runners showed incredible enthusiasm and determination, splashing their way around the course with big smiles.

My role involved timing each child as they crossed the finish line to ensure accurate results. Concentration was key — especially with rain on my phone screen! Innspite of the challenging conditions everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and embraced the weather.

12 GoodGymmers came together this week, including first timer Miran - welcome Miran! On foot or with pedal-power, we made our way up the short but oh-so-steep climb to the Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project (BUCFP) where we were greeted with a mountain of bedding that had been donated, and that needed sorting into sizes so that they can easily be allocated to those in need.

After some time deliberating over the difference between single, double or king sizes (check out the photos for the answer...) we made fantastic progress - sorting, folding and storing hundreds of sheets, duvet covers, mattress protectors and pillows in just half an hour.

The Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project provides practical support, education, advice and much more to those in poverty, in poor living conditions, benefit claimants, the unwaged, pensioners, families and those on low incomes and suffering social exclusion and poor wellbeing.

15 robust, wind-resistant Goodgymmers jogged over to St. Andrews church in Hove for our first visit of 2026. We welcomed new Goodgymmers Emily and Nancy!

Upon arriving we were welcomed inside by Vicar Dan and given a whole host of implements to get the church spick and span. We split into teams of dusters, sweepers, vacuumers and polishers and got to work!

Dan asked that we focus on giving the pews a good polish and sweeping the cobblestone floors. The church gets a lot of traffic from regular services and kids clubs. As made progress with the dusting an extra-long duster was constructed to get some pesky cobwebs* right in the rafters.

Cobwebs cleared, our big congregation of goodgymmers made quick work of the cleaning, posed for a team photo and then headed back once more into the breach (/wind).

*DId you know the difference between a cobweb and a spider web? A spider web can be new or old. A cobweb is typically an older web that has been left behind and has started collecting dust and debris. Some “cobweb spiders” make messy tangle webs even when they're fresh, so the best clue is usually fresh and sticky vs dusty and dull, not neat vs messy.

This was my first Goodgym Brighton session, and I was chuffed to be joined by Samantha and Christine, who were at their first Goodgym session ever! Welcome both, it was lovely to meet you! Stefan was also there on arrival, as an old hand at the task.

We were there to help chef John prepare a Lancashire hotpot for about 60 guests tomorrow afternoon.

The three of us established that none of us are gifted in the kitchen, but with John as our leader we were soon up to speed peeling and chopping veg, browning off meat, stirring and even helping bake an almond cake. We were rewarded with pastries from the farmer's market to help fuel the hard work.

The time flew as we chatted away, and when we headed off everything was ship shape and ready for the feast tomorrow.