On Wednesday the NHS celebrated it’s 75th birthday, and parkrun’s up and down the country were holding special events to mark the occasion.

The NHS isn’t perfect, but it’s ours, and undoubtedly will have impacted on everyone heres lives at some point - from new babies to broken bones, prescription pick ups to pre and post op care, and everything else inbetween. I’ve worked for the NHS for ten years, and I’m proud to be a part of it. I’m also very proud to be a part of the parkrun and the GoodGym communities - three organisations that are very special indeed. So obviously, when my NHS trust were heading to Osterley parkrun for the big day, it felt fitting that GoodGym come along too - after all, all three are out there helping look after our physical and mental health.

Six wonderful GoodGymmers from all over came along to help out and to run. Divy, Michelle and Harvey were all on the GoodGym barcode scanning take over, and quite frankly it was hard to decide who to pick to scan my finish token! Tilly helped with setting up and packing down, a job with a little extra today (thanks to the blue NHS banners up!), and SJ took the role of tail walker, making sure no one finished last.

Me on the other hand, well I was making my Run Director debut. I don’t like to put myself on a pedestal, but I did a great job. And I was also literally on a pedestal, as I took the mike and made sure everyone knew what today was about, briefing on the course, thanking the volunteers and waiting to see if anyone laughed at my sluice joke. They did, in case you wondered. Phew.

The sea of runners in blue went off, and the morning went swimmingly well, despite the threat of rain overhead. Here’s to the next 75 years of the NHS, plenty more parkruns and good deeds galore in the future.