GoodGym Ealing Celebrates its First Decade
Nearly 12,000 acts of practical kindness carried out since 2016
Members of Good Gym Ealing celebrating the group's tenth anniversary
August 25, 2026
GoodGym Ealing marked a major milestone this month, celebrating ten years of running, walking and cycling towards acts of practical kindness — and nearly 12,000 good deeds completed across the borough since its launch in 2016. The anniversary, held on 8 August with a picnic in Brent Lodge Park, brought together current members, long-standing volunteers and representatives from partner organisations who have shaped the group’s decade of community action.
What began as a small cluster of runners keen to combine fitness with volunteering has grown into a borough-wide force for good. Over ten years, 990 GoodGymers have taken part in more than 11,900 good deeds, each typically involving an hour or more of hands-on help. Thousands of hours have been spent supporting charities, improving green spaces, assisting community events and offering practical help to older residents who can no longer manage certain tasks alone.
Volunteers have worked with the William Hobbayne Charity, Ealing Transition, LAGER Can, Clean Up River Brent, Southall Community Alliance, We Run Ealing and parkrun, taking on everything from conservation and gardening to sorting donations and stewarding events. Alongside these group missions, members also visit older people for one-to-one tasks such as gardening, moving furniture or simply offering company — a strand of GoodGym’s work that has become increasingly valued.
The model is deliberately flexible. Volunteers walk, run or cycle to their sessions, making it easy for people of different fitness levels, schedules and abilities to take part. Some attend weekly, others drop in when they can; all are welcomed as part of the wider GoodGym community.
The anniversary day reflected that spirit. Before the picnic, members joined the Hanwell and Norwood Green Orchard Trail to cut back an orchard hedge and water fruit trees during the ongoing drought — a reminder that GoodGym’s celebrations often begin with a task. Later, in Brent Lodge Park, stories were shared, friendships renewed and new volunteers welcomed.
Area Activator Kash Ziolkowska summed up the ethos that has carried the group through its first decade. “Everyone is welcome at GoodGym Ealing, and every time someone shows up, it counts — both for the community and for themselves. Whether you walk, cycle or run to a task, come once a week or once a year, you are part of the GoodGym community.”
That sense of belonging is not just anecdotal. A two-year study by the London School of Economics, conducted in partnership with GoodGym, found significant improvements in mental wellbeing among participants. The research reported a 21% increase in life satisfaction, a 17% rise in the feeling that life is worthwhile, and a 21% decrease in mental distress. Loneliness fell by 12%, while feelings of belonging and connectedness rose by 27% and 16% respectively — figures comparable to major life changes such as moving from unemployment into work.
For volunteers in the borough of Ealing, the tenth anniversary is both a celebration and a marker of what sustained, local, volunteer-driven action can achieve. GoodGymers have spent ten years proving that small, regular acts of help — delivered on foot or by bike — can accumulate into something transformative for the borough’s green spaces, charities and older residents.
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