We arrived at the building of Sanctuary Family Support to be greeted by Maddy, fast becoming an old friend on our fourth visit here. The walls of one of their therapy rooms had years of marks, scuffs and general muck around old posters and pictures so they were in need of some fresh paint to spruce the place up once more.

As occasionally happens the tools and paint available were not fully up to the task, so many of our amazing charities and community groups are struggling to get by with their core work let alone invest in resources to decorate. The paint was old and had gone off, so in true GoodGym style Eimear and John set off on a run to the local shops to pick up some new paint and some masking tape, with the rest of us walking behind to help carry, a bonus to add a little extra exercises into the afternoon session!

With no ladder and foam rollers that kept falling off their polls, we carefully worked our way around the room, taking full advantage of the taller GoodGymers, thanks John and Phillip, to reach the tops of the walls!!

It wasn't long before all four walls were completed and another GoodGYm task well done!

Shout out to Eimear and John for running there and back and me for speed walking!!

( in the end the walls were painted magnolia not white as it was the only paint available but we don't let a small detail like that get in the way of a good pun!)

A team of 11 Goodgym walkers and runners set out to brighten up the SANCTUARY Yarden.

Gathering around the Suitcases, the energy was bubbling as new and old Goodgym members met. It was brilliant to have Frances join us, returning to help this brilliant charity. After a top to toe warm up, we headed off. Pauline leading the walking group and the runners taking a scenic route to admire the Wigwam and Giraffe buildings before rendevousing in Crown St Park. Selfies and parading complete the team met the wonderful Maddie who had everything ready to go. A mix of clearing top soil, weeding and emptying soil commenced with the team working slickly. Two planters were completely revived with fresh compost and the rest were weeded and topped. The difference was considerable and left the Yarden looking much more fitting of the place name.

Well done team for the great effort, thanks to Pauline for walk leading and photos and to Steph for the pun!

Waking up to a slightly cooler day at the tail end of this heatwave was a good start for this community mission, and on the same day as the momentous return of parkrun, our Goodgymers WhatsApp groups was a buzz with messages of running and volunteering at our local parkruns and an excitment to be up and running again (pun intended!) (and of course this CM was timed so people could do both!)

We did our first visit to Sanctuary Family Support in August 2019 with a spot of painting, planting and litter picking. Returing this weekend as 15 months of the building being locked down and all the staff and volunteers working from home has left the Yarden in a bit of a sorry state!

We set to cleaning up rubbish, clipping back some hardy overgrown plants, sweeping and scraping moss of the ground, and washing down the garden furniture. Today was all about cleaning up and making the space usable again, and we will be back in a few weeks to help plant some more new flowers and add a bit of glamour and sparkle.

Sanctuary Family Support are a local charity providing support to families of substance misusers, the substance misusers themselves and Kinship Carers. They offer one-to-one counselling as well as a progreamme or courses, workshops and community activities.

Sanctuary was founded by four parents in 1999, who realised then that there was a need for the service as there was no support services available to families in turmoil when they discover their son, daughter or other family member has a alcohol or drug problem, or both.

The Yarden is a perfect space for a little oasis and it's our pleasure to work the fabulous team at Sanctuary to help make that possible.

On yet another beautiful sunny evening, a totally rad 21 runners ran 3km to help out at a new task.

After a rather long trail run on Friday, I was suffering from a bit of a dodgy ankle so our brilliant Run Leader John led the way and I filled in as back marker.

Just 1.5km from our base, we arrived at Sanctuary F.S. and met with founder Maddy, who told us about this brilliant charity that cares for those struggling with addiction, as well as their families and close friends. It was our first time helping this project and Maddy was a little overwhelmed by how many people were happy to spend their Monday evening doing good in their city.

There were 2 main tasks - painting the garden benches green and painting a consultation room magnolia. As there were so many of us, some of the runners also got involved sweeping and weeding the garden and planting flowers. While a small group went outside and started an impromptu litter pick.

Shout out to newbies Dione and Kim who got stuck in and made themselves useful at the task, as well as easily keeping pace on the run. We'd love for you to run with us again soon.

After the task my ankle was feeling okay so I led the group back to base via one of the team's fave Liverpool landmarks - the Met Cathedral. Having read about an 11,000 step staircase race last week, I asked the team if they were up to it. Their goal was so see how many times they could traverse the 50 odd steps up to the cathedral entrance in 3 minutes. They all got really stuck in and dug deep while their legs burnt. Not quite 11,000 steps but a truly admirable effort - well done team!

Next week we're taking it to the streets with a litter pick in the L8 area of the city. Please bring gloves and your usual bags of enthusiasm. Find out more and sign-up here. See you then <3