The wonderful folk at Care4Calais Stockport put out an appeal for donations of mens clothing as they had had 170 male refugees arriving hotels across Manchester and did not have the donated supplies to offer them the basic clothing.

GoodGym Stockport jumped on board and rallied up donations from friends, family and colleagues and designated one of our group runs to load ourselves up like a pack horse and run the collected donations to the C4C headquarters.

Little did we know that the we would have the added hurdle of snow, hail and sleet to contend with!

We set off from base in minus degrees, layered up,.lamps on and backpacks on to brave the snow.

A 3km downhill run, a quick unloading and sorting task then a 3km uphill run and we were back at base.

To shake off our legs, the festive season and dark nights and welcome any newcomers, our group this week was to take a leisurely Run Talk Social - a chance to catch up, enjoy a mindful run with friendly faces, (illuminated by leftover Christmas night lights) and learn more about GoodGym. And generally BLOW off any festive cobwebs.

We met at base in the howling wind and torrential rain, all eager (haha) to kick start good habits and get back into routine. We chatted our way around a blustery 5 kilometer route - mixed with road runs, puddle jumps and beautiful halls before returning to base feeling refreshed, and very wet!

Last night's run felt like the first of the winter - a chill in the air but a spring in our step!

We embarked on a steady 2.5 downhill run back to the Care4Calais warehouse to continue with last week's task of wrapping presents for refugee children who are living in hotels across Manchester.

Donning our festive hats - two santas and a festive turkey (thanks Jen!) we speedily wrapped gift after gift and piled box after box until the warehouse was filled with gifts galore.

Then onto the upward slog uphill...

This cold dark November evening saw 6 super GoodGymers set off on a downhill jog to help down at the wonderful Care4Calais warehouse.

Care4Calais is one our regular tasks and one that always fills our hearts with warmth. The staff work tirelessly to get much needed clothes, toys and toiletries to those who are most in need after arriving in the country and so any help we can offer, we are all hands at the deck.

We sorted through an array of clothes and toys, filtering out those to keep and add to the donation stocks, and putting aside any that were not suitable.

The question to ask is 'would you feel a sense of enrichment by

We sorted and shelved, uncovering some interesting clothing items in the process!

We'll be back in a few weeks to help with the Christmas wrapping drive!

To shake off our legs, the dark nights and welcome any newcomers, this week's group run was a leisurely Run Talk Social - a chance to catch up, enjoy a mindful run with friendly faces, (illuminated by leftover Halloween night lights) and learn more about GoodGym.

We braved the elements, making our way around a 5km circuit, the perfect mixture of road and park running leaving us feeling refreshed and clear headed.