Today I arrived to assist in the parade to the Thames as part of the sardine festival, making sure all was well.

Wow. What an absolute privilege to have been a Tailwalker at Sunday's London Marathon. For those who don't know, we're a band of (very organised) volunteers who start walking at the 12-mile point, to offer support and companionship to those runners struggling (they'll finish between 7:30pm and midnight, if they make it, taking 8 to 12.5 hours to complete the course).

I finished my own marathon years ago. So to go out and help others do the same, in for them much harder conditions - it felt really good. Thanks to all the volunteers. We didn't break the 2-hour record (or any record). But it was a special day.

Throughout the last week, 7 good- gymers from different areas collected and binned wayward items that had been strewn across our boroughs streets and parks.

Myself and Anna teemed up after another task to do this.

I even thought I had found my lift home, but alas, on closer inspection it had broken down and was waiting for the AA!

Today I arrived at Mrs C's in the sunshine to clear her back garden again . The job consisted predominantly of 1 main culprit that had spread like wildfire.

This afternoon Anna and I met to tackle this garden together, we cut brambles, trimmed plants and mowed the lawn. Some of this was overseen by the recipient as it got him some fresh air and made him feel involved with his garden again. Both of us picked up some more knowledge today, as it was a battery mower, something we had never seen before.

We left the recipient pleased with our work and hopeful we would return to carry on the change of his outside space.

Another great evening with GoodGym at Grow Baby, supporting families in need.

Led by Rachel, our team — Jana, Manasa, Jonathan, Luke and Saber — got straight to work forming a human chain, quickly moving bags upstairs and building an impressive pile by the door (with Luke keeping spirits high with marathon stories along the way!).

With that done in record time, we moved downstairs where tasks were expertly assigned:

• Shoes sorted by Manasa

• Coats and dresses organised by Jonathan

• Toys checked by Luke

• Essentials stocked by Jana

• Saber helping wherever needed

We then tackled sorting winter clothes, blankets and grow bags into storage, making great progress in just an hour. With time for one final push, the teddy bear box turned into a fun finale — with Luke and Jonathan in goal as Jana launched toys over a wall of bags!

We finished with a group selfie among the piles — tired, happy, and having achieved loads in a short time. A brilliant effort all round 👏

Over at Refugee action having run, cycled and walked over we split in to teams to sort donations.

Men’s and women’s clothing as well as new donations required sorting and categorising whilst shoes needed pairing up. As always there were a few rouge items in the wrong section that needed rehoming and a few rainbow and sparkly numbers discovered for photos.

An hour after starting John and Tom had created an incredibly neat menswear department, Emma, Anna and Ellie had got women’s wear in order, Marcus had ensured that every shoe had a partner and Adam and Claire had filtered and put away all the donations.

After few snacks (we couldn’t resist) and a group photo we said our goodbyes with the runners heading off for a lovely run along the river.