After encountering a few difficulties in communicating with Ms D this week to confirm the mission, it was a relief to knock on her door and hear her voice say "just coming". My first task was to investigate whether her phone was working or not (it was, but required charging), and we then sat down to put a list together as she hadn't had the chance to do that yet.

A quick visit to Waitrose and an even quicker tour of the aisles to pick up her essentials for another week, including more supplies of chewies, and I was soon back with treasure in hand. We sat at the dining table to run through how the phone worked, and I turned up the ringer volume to maximum, and so hopefully Ms S is once again able to communicate with the outside world, and the outside world with her.

Blood donation at the main London Donor Centre on Margaret Street

In & out in 40 mins, kitkat & lemon squash as reward

Yesterday we were back at the wonderful Notre Dame Refugee Centre, who provide essential support and services to refugees and asylum seekers, offering food, clothing, and a safe place to turn to in tough times.

A good turn-out for the session meant we had plenty of helping hands to dive into the donations pile. Welcome to Laura, who came along for her very first session – we’re delighted to have you join us, and we hope you enjoyed the organised chaos!

The task in question was sorting through clothing donations. Some of them were great – well-loved items, in good condition, and totally wearable. Others took a little more working out. Where they some kind of futuristic garment or even a piece of clothing at all? A tangle of straps, an oversized shirt with arm holes and no clear purpose, a hybrid blanket/poncho - these all left us scratching our heads.

The real challenge, though, was the kids' clothes. Who knew determining the age for children's clothing would be such a conundrum? “Is this for a 3-year-old? Or a 6-year-old? Could it fit an advanced 2-year-old?” We may not have unlocked all the mysteries of child growth patterns, but we did our best to match sizes with a degree of precision (and guesswork).

After just under an hour, we had achieved good level of organisation: all boxes were cleared off the floor, donations were sorted into their rightful places, and there was a nice, neat space made for the next round of donations.

With the donations sorted and the space cleared, it was good to know that some families will receive items that they really need. Not to mention, we now have expert-level skills in identifying children’s clothing sizes (kind of).

Not for the first time I should've paid more attention to the small print, as I only discovered Ms D wasn't at her usual hone address when I rang her buzzer and a builder answered...Fortunately the mission confirmation had her correct location, and it was conveniently very nearby.

Ms D was struggling to adapt to her temporary new surroundings, and she explained she was having work done in the bathroom of her existing home. Even today's list was a little unfamiliar as she was having to put different items (like cornflakes) into her empty cupboards to get her through the next few weeks.

Fortunately the aisles of the world's politest supermarket remain as familiar as ever, and so it proved a straightforward trip in the bright sunshine to get everything that she needed for this week, including the amusingly described "chewies"...

It proved to be a double helping of flat pack furnituring for me this week. After Wednesday evening's effort where Anne and I had built a rather large chest of drawers in a somewhat confined and underlit space for Ms A, I arrived at Miss S's ready for more of the same.

Thankfully Miss S had a bit more floor space to lay everything out onto (and better still she had the radio playing in her kitchen to provide some background entertainment), and I was soon able to get to work on the bookshelf, familarising myself with the basic instructions, handily numbered largely identical looking pieces, two bags of screws, locking cam nuts, and a tiny Allen key.

Methodically following the steps, the two halves of the shelf soon took shape and I soon had the unit cam locked together, and manoeuvred it into the corner of the room where Miss S wanted it - at this point she was so very grateful, and decided that I deserved a tea break (which also involved some delicious cookies...).

After the interval I then turned my attention to a second smaller bookshelf which she described as being "V shaped" - I was curious as to what the end product would look like, and fortunately this one was a bit more straightforward to construct, once I'd worked out the somewhat cryptic instructions, involving a series of T shaped pieces that eventually all interlocked into place.

I left a very happy Miss S to take her books from the hall cupboard where she was storing them and make use of her new found shelving solutions, and in turn I did a quick tidy up, collected the cardboard boxes and the large amount of polystyrene packing, and put it all in her communal bins out on the street.

...all that's left now the sofa is outside is for it to be taken away by the council. It was no easy task for myself and Emma, we finished off some final dismantling then navigated the awkward angles and finally got the segments down the stairs (if only the lift was working!) but it was all worth it knowing the space was now free for the hospital discharge to take place.