“Just to warn you, it’s a jungle”, advised the mission referrer who met us at the task. “Perfect, that’s our specialist subject”, we replied. We chatted about how overgrown gardens can make the most satisfying of missions and then got stuck in. The mission referrer was absolutely fantastic in being a third pair of hands and her help (and tools) really made a difference to what we were able to achieve in a couple of hours - thank you so much! And we were really pleased to hear back about progress following a different mission referred by the same organisation that had been completed by GoodGym earlier in the month - delighted to have been able to pass the news back to the runners (who also achieved Jungle Hacker status).

We chatted away about Good Gym, the referring organisation and various other things whilst we hacked away like intrepid explorers, venturing further and further into the overgrowth. This was well and truly a mission of discovery: Nicky found a box of paints, and Samia found a delightful summer blouse, and then uncovered a bird house (yes, it was really that much of a jungle!) and then a red brick path.

We spoke about how much of a sense of achievement we could feel from seeing the difference and this was boosted by Mr M opening the door and expressing how he couldn’t believe what we’d achieved, how much of a difference it would make to him and how now he’ll able to sit out on his perching stool and enjoy the outdoors.

With a plentiful supply of bags, we were able to clear away the victims of our deforestation, took the bags to the front ready for collection next week, and we realised that our work had now made it possible to shut the garden gate! We proudly took some after-shots, and were in full agreement that this mission has confirmed our specialism as jungle hackers.