Nine GoodGymers made their way to St James' Park on a cold but dry Monday evening for the Newcastle United v Everton match, to raise money for the Newcastle Foodbank.

For almost all of us it was the first time volunteering at the stadium in this way and everyone seemed to enjoy their time raising money. Welcome to Ewan and well done on your first GoodGym good deed. Admirable dedication having recently suffered a dislocated shoulder. Kudos to Elena for coming along to volunteer before a long shift at work, and for her photography skills!

Lots of generous football fans donated lots of money, £10 and £20 notes were not uncommon, which should make a big difference to the foodbank.

Five GoodGymers headed out from Stepney Bank Stables to the Byker area of Newcastle to pick up as much litter as possible. It was new territory for most of our student GoodGymers, none of whom had heard of the Byker Wall. We got a good close up view of it as we collected litter between Stepney Bank Stables and Shields Road in Byker.

We filled around 13 bin liners between us, leaving the area looking much tidier by the end of the evening.

Another worthwhile evening was spent at Stepney Bank Stables painting the fence at the arena. This was the third and final time doing this and we managed to finish the job (and all of the paint).

We welcomed Leo, Ruby, Kanishk and Selim for their first GoodGym good deeds. Hopefully the first of many! We also look forward to seeing you all in the GoodGym red t-shirts soon.

As was the case last week, the darkness rapidly crept in once we got started painting. This time we were better prepared, with spotlights, a head torch, a chest torch and a hand held torch. We managed to illuminate the fence pretty well (unlike some of the photographs) as we applied the paint. A good level of effort was put in by everyone! We ran out of paint marginally before we ran out of time, but the fence was looking much better at the end of the session.