On our last group run of 2019, 22 sparkly superstars covered 500m of brisk walking to raise money for the London Air Ambulance at Lewisham Station

It's been a long time since I led a group run, so thank you to Emma for encouraging me to take the lead again this evening, for our last group run of 2019 (of the decade, in fact!). I took the opportunity to thank Emma, Kim and Amber for doing such a brilliant job of leading the runs in my absence, keeping us all moving and doing good.

Tonight's task was a very unusual one. We were invited by London Air Ambulance to sing carols and raise funds at Lewisham Station. With our task venue being just across the road from our start point, it meant we had the perfect chance to walk together and catch up on the way (Emma did offer to lead any particularly keen runners on a loop to the station, but weirdly, nobody jumped at it). We did, however, warm up, with a game of heads, shoulders, knees and cones, followed by a variation on the body parts theme.

We were joined this week by two first-time GoodGymmers, so a very big welcome and all our Lewisham Love to Jo and Leyla.

With accompaniment from our pianist Chris, we soon got going with our caroling (a big thank you to Chris, who stepped up following a Twitter request!). The piano on Lewisham Station is open to anyone passing by, with confident commuters often entertaining fellow travellers. Tonight we added words, bells, smiles and some very enthusiastic bobbing. Each time a train stopped at the station, with passengers pouring out, we were greeted with some bemused, but mostly smiling, faces. Some chose to pause and enjoy the music, some joined in and some were spotted filming the action. We even acquired a fan, Jim, who stayed for our whole 'set', even requesting 'O Holy Night', which really tested our range!

We think star caroler has to be Louise, who took a break from bucket holding to sign 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' in BSL. We all enjoyed this so much that we made it our finale, with everyone having a go at singing/signing along.

Thank you all so much for a wonderful evening, I skipped home, with a huge grin on my face!

We will return to group runs on Monday January 6th, with a visit to Seniors. In the meantime, we have a last-minute push tomorrow for our friends at Big Red Box. If you can make it, even just for a short period of time, do go along. If you would like some fresh air and exercise between Christmas and New Year, we have a lovely community mission in Hither Green, planting saplings at the train station embankment, details here.

Well done and thank you to everyone who has joined us this year, on a group run, helping on a mission or visiting an older person in their home. I look forward to more of the same in 2020, when we will be celebrating four years of doing good in Lewisham!

Happy Christmas lovelies x

Thank you Jacqueline for the pun!