It was great to be back in Barnsley, visiting the BCDP, on behalf of GoodGym. A message had been put out saying that help was needed to open and sort the great amount of donated bags that they had received recently. I therefore set up a community mission at the last minute to make this happen.

I turned up at Hope House just before 10, having been slightly confused about where I was to meet them (because a basement was mentioned, and it's been ages since I was last there). Straight away I was set to sorting donated toiletries into designated crates; with one for toothpaste, one for women's deodorant, one for men's deodorant, one for mouthwash (without alcohol), one for shower gel, one for shampoo, one for toothbrushes, one for heat pads, one for soap, and one for miscellaneous items like nail files, creams, aftershaves etc.

It was lovely to see Peter, to meet Dena, and to help the homeless in Barnsley. It was a well-spent 2 hours!

It was fantastic to welcome back expert gardener Adrian who we hope will be able to make it back to us on a regular basis again.

Also brilliant to welcome new runner and New Zeeland Guide Sam who came along for the first time and seemed to enjoy his time.

And a HUGE thanks and well done to Jenny all the way from Dronfield for inspiring and motivating musician supreme Joseph to come on down.

We had to have a bit of a re-jig last minute after our planned run to help Common Thread was canceled a day before the task. We re-adjusted and headed to Park Hill to pick up litter pickers, bags and hoops and do a quick circuit around part of the Park Hill estate up Duke Street and down South Street.

As ever there was a lot to go at with all of us getting a decent haul.

After heading back to base at The Showroom, some of us headed in for a drink and some food and some headed home.

A big thanks to everyone for making it down and for all their efforts, it's all really appreciated!

Until next time, happy running! :)

Brogan, Mike, Kevin, and I were faced with the rather formidable task of clearing the leaf litter from the long gennel near Abbeydale Rd. We turned up armed with shovels, brooms and bags, and quickly organised ourselves into teams to clear our way up the cut-through. We alternated ourselves between shovelling, sweeping and bagging to keep it interesting.

A local councillor was so impressed with our efforts to clear the long-standing problem of a footpath that he came out to thank us personally.

After spending a solid 2 hours scooping the layers of gunk up, we had filled a whopping 43 big bin bags between us.

Well that was a cold one!

We had a steep but short run up to Maltravers road with GG tourist Steph Ducat from GG Ealing fame who is in the area on business and kindly popped along to help out and see some of the sites of Sheffield.

Fortunately/unfortunately the evenings main sites were litter filled bushes on part of the National Cycling Network..

We met with Gerry, John and Walkwheelcyclesimon from The Walk, Wheel, Cycle Trust (Was Sustrans) and got tooled up with loopers, litter pickers, hoops and bags and got to it.

We lopped We picked We stacked traffic cones We tried to get frozen litter loose

It was a very worthwhile session as the bags of litter in the photo attest to.

Until next time, happy running :)

Ms F likes to change her living room curtains through the seasons to help brighten up the living room, but isn't able to do so by herself due to disabilities. It was a simple task to remove the old ones and thread on the new pair. Done in a jiffy and back on my way.

We met the FANTASTIC FRAN up the TOP of Heeley Green who got us tooled up and briefed on the evenings tasks.

We headed around the corner to a section which had become over run with wet leaves and overgrowth.

Enter goodgym!

We litter picked, we cleared leaves, we cut back brambles and generally made the whole space look a lot more inviting.

Until next time, happy running :)