I'd done a mission for Mrs P previously but as it was late in the day so a lot of the essential items she requested were sold out. She lives close by so I offered to go back again during my lunch hour in the hope of fuller supermarket shelves. Mrs P repeatedly says thank you during our interactions over the phone despite me reassuring her the added incentive to get my daily runs done is very much needed!

The only item on her list that had me stumped was 'Caramels', it turns out there are a large selection of confectionery at M&S that have caramel as the main ingredient. Cleverly Mrs P had included an empty packet, the envelope that also contained the shopping list and cash.

Alongside the slight difficulty of interpreting somebody else's shopping list, there was one other thing that made it hit home how frustrating this situation must be for the people we are helping. On the previous shop I had slightly gone over the amount of cash Mrs P had given me. I didn't point this out to her but I'd left the receipt in with the food so she could see how her cash was spent. On this second shop, alongside the cash, list and caramel packet there was a folded up note addressed to me. It included change to the exact value that I had over spent by on the previous day.

GoodGym beneficiaries, for want of a better word, are often proud people that would love nothing more to be independent. The vast majority of the time their situation appears to have been caused by tough circumstances completely out of their control. With Coronavirus this seems to hit home more than ever. Thank goodness for GoodGym!