7 Goodgymers turned up to help the Friends of Sutcliffe Park with an absolute Everest of a task: tearing up Himalayan balsam (not to be mistaken for celery). And there was no need to go to base camp to find it. We have all we need here at sea level.

We pulled up the balsam and separated the flowers from the stems to stop it going to seed and spreading even further. It was a real uphill battle, but we were determined to stem the tide before the balsam reached new heights.

No sherpas or oxygen needed, just a red shirt, some gloves, and the Goodgymers usual peak performance. A mountain of balsam tackled, one stem at a time.

5 Goodgymers made their way to Sutcliffe park in glorious sunshine to join Friends of Sutcliffe park to plant sunflowers. Special shoutout to Julian who completed his 800th Goodgym task at the Sutcliffe parkrun the same morning, and a welcome to Maeni who attended her first!

While being watched by Bonnie, the Sutcliffe park swan, we went to work. Instructions were simple enough. Dig a hole, put a seed in, cover it up, water, repeat! The ground was very dry, making the digging a challenge. But we got there, the seeds found a new home under ground, and we finished off this sunny session with coffee and cake.