This evening, 7 GoodGymers met at Stepney Bank Stables on a cold but dry Monday evening for a jog up to The Lighthouse Project in Byker where we were back after nearly 2 months! We welcomed Holly, another Newcastle medical student on her first (hopefully of many) GoodGym mission as well as Selim, a PhD student from the University too on his second GoodGym mission, proudly sporting his new GoodGym t-shirt, Ewan and Ruby, another two medical students who have now become regulars already, Scott, Richard, Elena (myself, writing my first ever report stepping up to my new TaskForce role!) and last but not least, Zach, GoodGymer number 8, joined us a bit later after circling round the centre until he found the one unlocked access to it!

This was our first group mission there since the clock changed back to GMT time and we’d underestimated how well lit the youth centre was. Before we knew it, we’d filled up 4 large bags with dry leaves and weeds from the surrounding green area we had trimmed significantly last time - it is rewarding for us to see this place improve so much every time we go! Finally, we all jogged back to the Stables via a questionable ‘shortcut’ that felt if anything longer than the usual route but a perfect excuse to start the week with some miles in the bag!

Please join us for another visit to The Lighthouse Project next week!

Six GoodGymers headed out from Stepney Bank Stables to spread the word about GoodGym with some leaflets. The Tyne Bridge is closed this week, which made actually getting to Stepney Bank Stables a bit of a challenge in itself!

Welcome to El, attending a GoodGym session for the first time. We hope to see you again soon in the red t-shirt. Thank you very much for your efforts tonight.

Everyone did a good job delivering leaflets around Jesmond, a place that we very rarely, if ever, deliver leaflets. The first new sign up to GoodGym had arrived by 8pm, hopefully the first of many this week.

We're collecting for Newcastle Foodbank at the Newcastle v Everton match next week. Please note the earlier thsn usual start time.

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.

Ten GoodGymers descended upon Stepney Bank Stables on an overcast, but dry, Monday evening to continue the job of painting the fence at the arena.

Welcome to first time attendees Rory, Nicole and Sofia. It was lovely to meet you all and we hope to welcome you back again soon. At least you know how to find us now Sofia! Well done for persevering and tracking us down.

Well done to Claire and Arie for completing their second GoodGym good deeds. We hope to see you in the red t-shirts next time!

The fence received another good amount of paint tonight but the job wasn't quite complete. The darkness moved in rather quickly, much more so than two weeks ago at the same location. Everyone did their best in the gloom, with perhaps one more session needed to finish the job.

On a very pleasant Monday evening, we arrived at Newcastle University Students' Union to be met by Natalia. She was there to help us write letters, cards and postcards to unwell children, a quite unusual task for GoodGym Newcastle.

We were joined for the first time by Yining, from Shanghai, by Juan, from Málaga and by Lide, from Northern Spain. Thank you very much for coming along!

Best wishes to Joanna after the loss of her cat and good luck to Scott for this week's house move.

We used lots of craft materials, cards, postcards and a wide array of pens and pencils to send some positive messages to children not in the best of health. We hope our cards and letters cheer them up!

Please join us next week at Stepney Bank Stables!

Scott attended Apple Day, washing, chopping, pressing and scratting apples. A good time was had by all at The Bike Garden.