St Gemma's Hospice

Yorkshire's Largest Hospice
St Gemma’s Hospice is a Leeds-based charity providing expert care and support for local people with life-limiting illnesses.

35 GoodGymers have supported St Gemma's Hospice with 3 tasks.


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Previous sessions
LeedsGroup run
+21
Heather Fulton
George SullivanAron FultonElizabeth Stephensen-Payne

Turning over a new leaflet

Wednesday 26th February 2020

Written by Aron Fulton

With the stormy weather threatening to stick around, sign ups for tonights run were looking a little thin, but some clear skies and a break in the wind meant a cracking 26 people came along to get involved!

With just a few minutes before our meet-up time, it was looking like this could be our quietest ever turnout, but thankfully it was just some heavy traffic, and there was a late surge of GoodGymers to bolster the ranks. We welcomed one new runner tonight, Darla, who picked a particularly chilly night to come along for her first taste of GoodGym! Nice one Darla!

Tonight also saw Adam miss his first ever Group run since our launch leaving taskforce keen-bean Katie as the only ever-present (Ok I've been there every week too, but I don't really count).

Our task tonight was to deliver the remaining leaflets for St. Gemma's Hospice, to let even more people know about the great things they do in and around Leeds. The plan was to split into three groups, all heading for slightly different target streets, to deliver as many of the leaflets as possible.

We warmed up with a little bit of mirroring to get us moving, but also to help us think about our co-ordination and reactions. We slowly built in intensity and had a few curveballs in there, such as working only one side of the body or standing on one leg.

We then split ourselves into groups and were on our way. The Meanwood crew were away first heading off into the Sunset (or more accurately heading towards the Sunsets - Sunset Road, Sunset Avenue, Sunset Mount etc). Their route was definitely the furthest and included some pretty tough hills, so they were keen to make a head start.

The other two groups had a slightly more leisurely start, but were soon on their way. Once we all arrived at our locations and worked out our plan of attack so we didn't miss any houses or, even worse, leaflet the same house twice, we set about our task. Having leafletted before, most of the group knew exactly what to do, and some had even come prepared.

"You need to have your trusty wooden spoon" George, waving around his utensil excitedly.

It isn't clear if George has now made this his 'leaflet delivering spoon', or he goes home and stirs his spag bol with it, but either way I think we'll be seeing the spoon again!

As I tried to run around between groups to see as much of the action as possible, it was great to see the teamwork on display with lots of chatter about which houses had been ticked off already. As it was by now pretty dark, the small groups of two's and three's were usually heard before they were seen. Newbie Darla was immediately getting involved, and Minnie in particular took charge of her small crew, making sure they didn't get lost in their maze of a route. Despite the risk of getting lost everyone seemed to be having a great time.

"I love the leapfrogging! It's so much fun!" Rach D, getting a bit too excited about posting leaflets.

There was lots of racing in front of each other to be the first to a house, which just goes to show you all want to make your own fun! Over in the Hollin lane group, they were battling with the long driveways, hilly steps, and just generally struggling to find the postboxes in the dark! In what should probably become our motto as a group from now on, Rachael C (accidentally, I think) summed up the whole GoodGym spirit.

"We may run out of leaflets, but we will never run out of enthusiasm!" Rachael, apparently doing her best impersonation of Mel Gibson in Braveheart.

With all the leaflets delivered, everyone made their way back to base. After a quick debrief and a a stretch, we were all on our way.

Don't forget there is a Community Mission on Friday, a parkrun meet-up at Fountains Abbey on Saturday, and a Hilly training session on Sunday! So much for you all to get involved with.

Thanks for another great session, see you all next week, if not before!

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LeedsCommunity mission
Katie Lees

Don't forget to close the Crossgates

Sunday 16th February 2020

Written by Katie Lees

3 runners braved storm Dennis to spend a Sunday lunchtime leafletting for St. Gemma's Hospice.

After this mission has already been postponed by storm Ciara, I was slightly worried about the forecast. However, we struck lucky with the weather. The rain held off so we weren't just posting mush through letterboxes. Although, the wind did threaten to blow us and the leaflets away at times.

We started on a street close to the shopping centre. Tom went solo on one side of the street, and Rach and I adopted the leapfrogging technique on the other. It quickly became competitive as we all ran to beat each other to the next house. I'm sure the residents of Crossgates thought we were a bit too old to be playing our odd game of post-a-leaflet-through-a-door-run.

The leaflets were advertising 2 fund-raising events for St. Gemma's hospice: a Yorkshire 3 peaks challenge, and a sponsored dog walk. The leaflets were received with a mixed response. One man sitting on a doorstep handed the leaflet back to Tom saying:

There's no way I'm doing the 3 peaks

Fair enough, and there's no point in wasting a leaflet!

We also quickly identified the most suitable houses for the dog walk leaflets using the loud barking noises coming from inside. Remembering Aron the postman's warning, we were particularly careful with our fingers at these houses. As we were pointing out excitable dogs, I was temporarily alarmed when Rach shouted:

This one's got a lion!

whilst pointing into the garden I was standing in. Fortunately it was made out of stone.

We managed to post all of the leaflets in just half an hour, so we made our way into one of Crossgate's finest eating establishments (if such a thing exists). We tucked in a well deserved lunch just as the heavens opened. I think that might have been the best weather we've had for a task yet, thanks Dennis.

p.s. please enjoy the totally not at all posed picture of leaflet delivery, and the fun wobbly strava map

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LeedsGroup run
+18
Heather FultonGeorge SullivanAron FultonElizabeth Stephensen-PayneAnne Barber

Mission Im-post-able

Wednesday 5th February 2020

Written by Aron Fulton

This was our first ever leafleting task, which meant lots of extra logistics and guesstimating runners' speed and posting efficiency, but thankfully it all seemed to work out OK in the end.

Before setting off tonight, there was loads to celebrate. The January challenge was over and an incredible 70 Leeds GoodGymers combined to complete a whopping 194 good deeds, which is absolutely amazing. This placed us 13th overall in the GoodGym area league table, which is incredible considering we've only been going for just over 4 months.

Riobhne reached her 10th Good Deed (and was nonchalant as ever about it). Great work Riobhne! We also welcomed Rachel to a group run for the first time since she hit 50 Good Deeds, which meant the grand unveiling of GoodGym Leeds' very own Cape of Good Deeds. In a tradition started by GoodGym York, we like to celebrate our runners amazing achievements by making them look like the superheroes they are for one night only. Our very own cape comes complete with sparkles and superhero mask. You wore it well Rachel!

It was also great to welcome one brand new runner to the group tonight, everyone go and give Emily a cheer!

With all of the celebrating out of the way, it was time to get on with the tricky business of delivering leaflets! We had already split into four groups, with each crew aiming for a slightly different area. Rachel and Liz's group were staying close to Hyde Park, Adam was taking his crew to Headingley, Katie and Heather's team were heading for the bottom end of meanwood, while Aron's gang was pushing on to the centre of meanwood.

The leaflets were all about raising awareness of some of the fundraising events that St. Gemma's Hospice put on during the year. St. Gemma's is the argest Hospice in Yorkshire, and one of the largest in the country, and earlier in the week, Pete from St. Gemma's had explained why the events are so important.

"St Gemma's needs over £10m each year to cover our costs, and about £6m of that needs to come from fundraising." Pete, task owner, St. Gemma's Hospice.

With the leaflets distributed, and the warnings to look out for dogs ringing in everyone's ears, we were off! A few runners looked slightly strange carrying their trusty wooden spoons almost like relay batons, but they were clearly in the know, as this would hopefully help them to avoid any nasty scrapes or cuts in letterboxes. The routes had been planned so that 3 off the groups would actually set off in the same direction before splitting up later on. The run took us down the super-steep North Grange Mount, which is definitely on the cards for hill reps once we get to summer!

By now, we'd all separated out into our individual groups, and found our way to our first delivery points. The highlights of the evening included:

  • George getting so excited about delivering leaflets that he gave himself a nosebleed.
  • Riobhne getting so excited about delivering leaflets that she ran into a tree.
  • Rob finding a stack of leaflets after we thought we'd finished, and then getting excited because it meant we could deliver more leaflets.

From the sounds of things each of the groups found their own rhythms and techniques, with some choosing the leapfrog method, while others chose to take opposite sides of the street for a more pure experience of solo delivery. Some runners were discovering the perils of the impossible to find letterboxes (obviously they receive their mail by carrier pigeon, or Harry Potter-style with owls dropping them at the breakfast table), while other runners were just appreciating the beautiful houses and gardens.

"I liken the lichen" new runner Emily getting into the swing of things with puns on the run.

As well as delivering leaflets for St. Gemma's we had a few posters to deliver for the Children's Heart Surgery Fund, advertising their Wear Red Day. On the way back from our various routes, we stopped in the various pubs, cafes and shops to ask them to display a poster, with Rachel's superhero cape proving a real crowd pleaser!

With well over 1,000 leaflets delivered, we all returned to base for a bit of a debrief. It sounds like everyone enjoyed it, although some came away with mixed feelings.

"It just felt like we were robbers the way we were running away from the houses in the dark!" Katie.

With that we finished off with a stretch before heading to the pub to swap stories and celebrate our many accomplishments.

The Strava Flyby of the route is really fun, you can see everyone heading off in completely different directions and speeding up and slowing down as we stopped at each house to post. You should definitely check it out!

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