For Oscar's first GoodGym mission The Fantastic Four transformed Mr and Mrs O's front and back gardens and made their windows sparkle.

Two of us had come straight from Finsbury ParkRun's seventh-anniversary run (Anne ran and I marshalled with spooky tunes) and it was a milestone for ParkRun as they were celebrating their millionth runner this year. Great work! It was also wonderful to see that GoodGym featured on BBC Breakfast and to hear about hundreds of new sign ups.

If you need some help. In the neighbourhood. Who you gonna call? GOODGYM!

We met Andy and Oscar on the outer edges of Camden and were all ready to do good. Mrs O had previously called on GoodGym (though actually remembered it as JimJam!!) and had plenty of tasks ready for today. We were asked to split into two teams:

• Anne and Andy didn't beat around the bush and took on the front garden: The front-of-house team trimmed back bushes, cleared away boxes and plucked purple flowers to make the garden good as new.

• Oscar and I clipped high and low in the rear garden: Oscar had a 90-second masterclass about pruning and the importance of diagonal cuts before climbing the ladder and trimming back the high branches of the fruit trees. I started the tunes and then focused on clearing weeds and fallen fruit at low levels. While working we talked about different motivations to volunteer and stories about acting, writing and elderly isolation.

GoodGym United 4 - Weeds in the back garden 0

Once Anne and Andy finished their tasks, they joined forces and The Fantastic Four was reformed!

With double the numbers we had double the power and it did not take long to finish the topiary, weeding, raking and sweeping. As a bonus task, Oscar donned a pair of marigolds and cleaned the windows so that Mr and Mrs O could see their lovely garden from inside.

By the end of the mission we had filled four huge bags of green waste and cleared the path around the back garden so that Mr O could find some fresh air with a gentle walk.

SOUPerheroes

And finally Mrs O was very insistent that we should finish with a warming cup of carrot and coriander soup: no trick! Instead we were treated to anecdotes about Mrs O's many and varied travels around the world and we all encouraged her to finish writing her book: I'm sure it will be a fascinating and entertaining read.

Patrick signing out to think of a spooktacular costume for tonight!