Tuesday’s group run took us to Hestia’s Good Energy Club, a fantastic community space supporting people experiencing mental health challenges. Their mission is to improve physical wellbeing, support mental health and reduce social isolation - values very much aligned with GoodGym’s own.

We arrived in force and were welcomed by John, who gave us a tour before offering the ultimate volunteer incentive: snacks in exchange for our cleaning efforts. Armed with hoovers, cloths, spray bottles and plastic gloves, we got straight to work.

We were also joined by special guests Ivo and Hannah. Rather than rolling out the red carpet, we rolled out the hoovers and put them straight to work alongside the rest of the team. After deciding who was tackling which room, John put on a soundtrack of 90s classics that kept spirits high and energy levels up throughout the evening.

The hour flew by, and before long it was time for a final snack break and the journey home. John was hugely appreciative of the help, explaining that the club doesn’t have a dedicated cleaning budget and that maintaining such a large space can be a real challenge.

It was lovely to meet Hannah on her first task, and congratulations again on your new role as CEO of GoodGym.

Rachel, Laura and Jana spent an hour helping spruce up the pathway leading to the MILAAP day centre, which was covered in leaves, seeds, weeds and general debris along the edges.

After a bit of improvisation with the tools — including a snow shovel that turned out to be surprisingly excellent at scooping seeds — the team quickly got to work. Laura tackled the weeds, Rachel led the sweeping operation, while Jana helped gather debris, empty buckets and keep everything moving smoothly as the bin bags steadily piled up.

There were a few dramatic moments when overloaded bags split open, scattering seeds everywhere, but the team recovered quickly and kept spirits high.

By the end of the session, around six bin bags had been filled and the pathway was looking far clearer and more welcoming. Hopefully the residents at MILAAP will enjoy the refreshed entrance!

It was a full-on session at Full Cycle this week, bolstered by some fantastic neighbouring support - a few members of the GoodGym Merton team cycled across the borough to lend a hand with the packed to-do list.

In the workshop, it was all hands on deck as we dove into the usual recycling of inner tubes and tyres. This included sorting through wheel rims and tackling the somewhat difficult job of removing stubborn rubber from the metal.

Outside, the mission felt like a high-stakes game of bike Tetris. We had to move a sea of cycles and untangle them from encroaching brambles just to create a workspace. Once we had the room, the team made short work of cutting back the overgrowth, sweeping up leaves, and clearing rubbish before neatly returning every bike to storage.

Heavy lifting, tricky logistics, and plenty of camaraderie: just another un-tyre-ing group session!

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.

It was time to get in the festival spirit with a record number of GoodGymers running, walking and cycling to the British Heart Foundation.

With 18 GoodGymers we split into two teams; one on a festival themed window display and another on dining room tables.

The festival team were all about colour and fun. Shelving units were shifted and filled with tents and sleeping bags, a guitar wall was created, a pink BBQ was assembled and a swinging chair was given a good swing test. A few animals even found their way to the party to complete the display.

The second squad was the ultimate dream team of practical pros! Featuring the powerhouse lineup of Laura, Marcos, Manasa, Jonathan, Anna, JP and Sam. This group turned 'flat-pack frustration' into a total breeze.

The team channeled their inner engineers to fix and assemble table legs with surgical precision. Using pure Goodgym muscle, they hauled a fleet of tables and chairs out of storage and onto the shop floor. In record time, the empty floor space went from 'blank canvas' to 'ready for business' thanks to their hustle.

And as every festival needs a crowd we all squeezed into our mini festival for a group pic.

Kingston GoodGym has a long history with the communal garden at Vine Close, which we helped clear ahead of its redesign from the very beginning. It's so satisfying to see how far it has come to the relacing setting and the beautiful pond teeming with wildlife it is today.

Georgina, the biodiversity officer from Kingston, was on hand to get us started and help with nature advice.

Jonathan, Laurel and Marcos got stuck into removing invasive plants around the banks and even made a tiny new frog friend.

Claire, Emma and Adam helped tidy up the surrounding garden and plant pots while Tom and Laura somehow managed to avoid wet feet clearing duckweed from the pond.

Everything looked great afterwards, and we could even see a few newts in the - temporarily - clear pond. A lovely task on a perfect spring evening.