I visited Mr P but he had said he did not need any shopping done as he already had items in.

One runner helped marshall at a very blustery Preston Park Juniors Parkun on Sunday. The weather was sunny but it was blowing a gale, with many participants struggling to keep there hats on! I marshalled the course with other volunteers helping get everyone around in a speedy half hour. Some where less enthusiastic than others but everyone who started finished!

Impressive was the stamina of yesterday’s Brighton GoodGym-ers who did not even hesitate to get out in a cold Autumnal evening for a short run to Palmeira Square to help the Palmeira and Adelaide Garden Group. New heroic GoodGym-er Sonam joined us for the first time, in shorts 😊

As usual, our lovely Stuart, who is the patron of all the good conservation happening in Palmeira Square’s green spaces, welcomed us ready for action with rakes, brooms and leaves grabbers to remove all the Autumnal leaves from the footpaths around the Floral Clock.

On continuing move and with grand co-ordination of group effort, we managed to clear all the pavements without (almost) freezing our hands and feet. Soon after the GoodGym-ers were joined by Brighton & Hove council's forces contributing to the clearance of the streets and to our greatest satisfaction!

The Floral Clock is now ready for the Christmas lights switch-ons happening this coming weekend!

See WHAT's ON NEXT at GoodGym Brighton!

One Goodgymer ran to Queens Park to help out with the Junior Parkrun. With a winding two lap course in an out of wooded areas lots of marshalls were needed to help. Standing at marshall position 2 I cheered the juniors through the secret garden on up the hill. There was a great turn out with lots of smiling faces even after two laps of the park! After helping pack up at the end I headed off with a great feeling of achievement!

Upon being greeted by Mr L, I was led through to what he described as "a bit of a jungle" and rightly so! But I assured him us GoodGymers are used to a bit of jungle bashing and set to work pulling up brambles while he made me a lovely cuppa. Mr L's late wife used to look after the garden and in recent years it's gotten out of hand, so hopefully with our help the garden can be enjoyable once again. Four bags of bramble, cup of tea and a visiting robin later, I'd made a good dent in taming the jungle!

Sanctuary Runners is a solidarity-through-sport initiative founded in Ireland and launched in Brighton by Tim Holtan in July 2024. It uses running, jogging and walking to bring together asylum seekers, refugees, migrants and all residents - a Good Initiative, that Brighton GoodGym is happily partnering with.

Usually, we run alongside other Brighton Sanctuary Runners at Saturday's Preston Park parkruns.

We are now also running together at their Thursday's weekday session as an additional opportunity to share our 'Solidarity, Friendship and Respect' by bringing Our Smile to ALL, including whom arrived in our city seeking safety and sanctuary.

Yesterday was a special gathering for Brighton Sanctury Runners with its extended family of other community runners and walkers in Brighton & Hove, including pro-marathon runners from London Marathon Events and our friends from Run & Rave, who brought spark and music to our 5K evening run altogether on the Brighton seafront. The inspiring welcoming words of Joe and Graham, one of the founders of Sanctuary Runner, and even more warming living testimony of our friend and table tennis player, Alban, strengthened our sense of togetherness in bridging the gap among culture and language diversities thought our shared passion for moving united!

We could not miss this, in full GoodGym spirit, so Stefania and Sarah happily joined the run with this new Brighton family and the after-run celebration with a Good feast prepared by our other friends of the Real Junk Food Project.

We will be back soon here for another GoodGym Brighton’s community group run and mission!

See WHAT's ON NEXT at GoodGym Brighton.