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  • At one point Gary Key, 60 from East Yorkshire, was collecting five packets a day 
  • Have you been collecting anything unusual? Email: [email protected] 

A father who collected 24,000 empty crisp packets over 12 years says he is finally ready to end the ‘daft hobby.’ 

Gary Key, 60 from Cottingham in East Yorkshire, took up the hobby as a coping mechanism after his partner, Joanne, was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer

Since taking up his unusual hobby, Mr Key has appeared in multiple newspapers and was even mentioned on Have I Got News For You. 

Mr Key said: ‘I started collecting because I was fed up knowing that in a period of five to six months, my partner was going to die. 

‘I wanted to do something to occupy me. Why it was crisp packets, god only knows. Joanne called me a nutter, but I could’ve been called worse!’

Gary Key (pictured), 60 from Cottingham in East Yorkshire, took up the hobby as a coping mechanism after his partner, Joanne, was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer

Gary Key (pictured), 60 from Cottingham in East Yorkshire, took up the hobby as a coping mechanism after his partner, Joanne, was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer

Mr Key's collection of 24,000 crisp packets could be a world record smashing the current record of 1,482

Mr Key’s collection of 24,000 crisp packets could be a world record smashing the current record of 1,482

To help reduce the amount of space needed to store the bags, Mr Key grilled the wrappers and rolled them into colourful little balls. He hoped to sell off the collection of 'Gary's Old Balls' to raise awareness of prostate cancer, with the proceeds to Macmillan Cancer Support. However, he was unable to find a buyer

To help reduce the amount of space needed to store the bags, Mr Key grilled the wrappers and rolled them into colourful little balls. He hoped to sell off the collection of ‘Gary’s Old Balls’ to raise awareness of prostate cancer, with the proceeds to Macmillan Cancer Support. However, he was unable to find a buyer

After Joanne died, he has continued to collect crisp packets and by 2016 he had 8,000 packets – some which he bought himself and others he found on the street left by litterbugs. 

In 2016 Mr Key was collecting packets at a rate of five bags a day. To help reduce the amount of space needed to store the bags, he grilled the wrappers and rolled them into colourful little balls. 

His collection is split into two boxes, with one containing 10,000 and another containing 14,000, with the rest, un-grilled, bundled with elastic bands. 

Mr Key, who use to work at the University of Hull, hoped to sell off the collection of ‘Gary’s Old Balls’ to raise awareness of prostate cancer, with the proceeds to Macmillan Cancer Support. However, he was unable to find a buyer. 

The collection of crisp packets could be a world record – according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The current official world record was set in June 2004 with Bernd Sikora, who has 1,482 from 43 different countries. 

Mr Key may have a collection that is a whopping 22,518 larger than the current record holder.

He said: ‘I don’t want a Blue Peter badge or anything like that, I’ve carried on and carried on.’

With his daughter about to leave school, he’s decided it’s time to pack in the hobby. Mr Key said: ‘I just want to call it a day, but if I see one in the street I’ll still pick it up. It’s just habit now. 

‘Somebody suggested that I have a water feature and put them in there because of how colourful they are.’ 

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This post first appeared on Daily mail

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