On 17th April 2024, Jodie Ashdown, a film and television writer based in South Wales, reached out to Aneurin Leisure Trust to enquire about how she could support and donate to the Community Kit Room (CKR). Jodie, whose television credits include the popular BBC series of Doctors and Casualty, first heard about the CKR when completing an online search 'What to do with old kit Cardiff', where a recent Sport Wales article promoting the initiative answered her query.

After initial introductions, Jodie soon organised two donation bins in different locations within Cardiff, further promoting the CKR service to both establishments and its users/visitors, along with adding her personal donation of pre-loved sportswear.  It was agreed to run the donation campaign for the whole month of May, and turned out to be a great success.  Jodie told us:

“Like many people who are into sports, I have acquired quite a bit of gym clothing over the years.  Most of it I didn't wear anymore and add to that numerous event finisher t-shirts and clothing duplicates, it was getting too much.  Needing to free up some wardrobe space but wanting the clothes to go somewhere more specialised than a charity shop, I did an online search of places that might take in used and old kit and that's when I found the Community Kit Room.

It looked like a really worthwhile and much-needed scheme so I contacted them to ask if they were accepting donations which they were.  Then, assuming that other people probably also had fitness clothes lying around that they no longer wore and didn't know what to do with, I decided to open up the collection.

Two places sprung to mind that would be perfect for a collection point, Dragon Athletic, my Crossfit gym in Fairwater, Cardiff, and First Light Coffee Shop in Tongwynlais, which caters mostly to runners, walkers, cyclists and mountain bike riders.  Both were more than happy to oblige and placed the collection bins on site. For all of May, we received bags of donations from the community as well as patrons of both businesses.  They filled up faster than I could empty them!  By the end of the month we had enough leggings, vests, hoodies, trainers and other items to fill up my entire car boot.  I dropped the items up to the Kit Room in Abertillery Sports Centre ready to be distributed. 

I'd like to thank both businesses for acting as a donation base and for everyone who spread the word and contributed to the collection.  After seeing the Community Kit Room for myself and learning more about the work they do, I can see it's an incredibly important cause and I'm glad I could help add to their stock and hopefully get the word around a bit more.”

It was a huge privilege and pleasure of meeting Jodie at the CKR, where the incredible amount of fantastic quality sportswear was gratefully received.  On behalf of everyone within the Aneurin Leisure Trust’s sports development team, we would like to say a huge thank you to Jodie for reaching out and organising the donations, and to both Dragon Athletic and First Light Coffee Shop for partnering together on such a positive, community-impacting project.

The donations will make significant impact on those who are looking to begin or maintain their health, sport and fitness journey within the communities of Blaenau Gwent.

To find out more about how to access the CKR, or how to donate – like Jodie, please visit: Community Kit Room (bglife.co.uk)