Author: Ruth Major

Day 1 of 22 days

2 years ago, on the 22nd May, 22 beautiful people were brutally murdered in Manchester. Since then I’ve picked up 22 pieces of rubbish each week to try to make Greater Manchester a beautiful, lasting memorial. Please pick up #1PieceOfRubbish for the next 22 days and remember the beautiful 22. #NeverForget

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Wonderful presentation evening at Eastern Pavilion for The Mayor’s Charity Appeal. Honoured & humbled to receive an Active Citizen Appreciation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Local Community from Mayor Javid Iqbal. THANK YOU! 🙏

Penzance, Redruth, Truro, Hayle, Newquay, Manchester…..clearing the trails made by some ‘bad eggs’!

Great afternoon giving a talk about Rubbish Ruth’s Rambles to the amazing Funky Fitness and Fun group at the Satellite Centre, Greenfield. These young adults are so inspirational and enthusiastic and created some wonderful ideas about improving the environment. Thank you for such a happy and enjoyable time with you all 🙏💚

Bus Pass Trip 14 – North-East Circular
Just when I think I can’t improve on my previous trips I’m proven wrong! Last week I spent 6 days in glorious sunshine (albeit somewhat cold) exploring the beautiful countryside of North Lincolnshire, Humberside, East Riding, North Yorkshire, Cleveland, County Durham and West Yorkshire before returning to find the hills around Oldham bathed in sunshine too! Everywhere there were lambs in the fields, daffodils along the roadsides and blossoms on the trees, all enhancing the most breath-taking scenery.
To start my trip I caught the train to Hull and from thereon it was ‘bus pass’ travel to Grimsby, Hull, York, Whitby, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Darlington, Richmond, Ripon, Harrogate, Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield and finally over the border into Greater Manchester where I boarded a (free) tram back into to Oldham . I travelled on 23 buses, stayed at 4 Anchor-Hanover Guest Rooms, visited 7 Wetherspoons’ pubs, researched my family history in 3 libraries and did 2 BBC Radio broadcasts about my adventures. Radio York invited me into their studios to talk, live, to their listeners and BBC Tees conducted a telephone broadcast whilst I was on a bus to Whitby! I spent £40 on accommodation, zilch on travel and my Wetherspoons bill is a secret!
As ever, I picked up and ‘talked’ a load of rubbish, distributed my Social Media information cards to anyone and everyone who was prepared to listen about the #1PieceOfRubbish campaign and received lots of positive and encouraging reactions. A lovely volunteer in Age UK in Richmond was very complimentary about my efforts, students in Darlington promised to share my details with their friends, the staff at Hartlepool library were keen to inform their colleagues and a young man I met in Hull Interchange is now an ardent litter-picker!
In an effort to show the route I was following, I bombarded you with pictures of rubbish going into various bins, photos of guest rooms and information about radio stations. I thank you all, most sincerely, for your responses, tweets, retweets, posts, shares, ‘likes’ and ‘loves’! Responding to every one of them is nigh on impossible but I appreciate your unerring interest in – and support for – the campaign. THANK YOU!

Bus Pass Trip 15 is already in the planning stage but until then I’ll leave you with this thought from Mahatma Ghandi:
“In a gentle way you can shake the world”
Much love and gratitude to you all. Go gently!

New boots, new Bus Pass Trip, new ADVENTURE!!!

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   I didn’t win an award but I ‘picked up’ a couple of hearts and spread the #1PieceOfRubbish campaign by ‘card-bombing’ dozens of people with my ‘business’ cards. Hopefully I’ve won over lots of important and influential hearts!!! 💚💚💚. It was an amazing experience… one I wouldn’t have missed for the world and that was ample reward in itself. 

 

 

 

 

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