The father who amassed the world’s biggest collection of empty crisp packets says it’s over – after amassing a whopping 24,000, 60-year-old Gary Key was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer in 2012 when his partner Joanne was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. As a coping mechanism, I started a unique hobby. .
After Joan passed away, Gary vowed to continue collecting Walker’s Lady Salted flavour, which was his favorite. But with his youngest child Alisha, 15, finishing school this year, Gary decided to stop collecting, a decision he says made him sad.
“I think not collecting them really affects me,” he said. “I might have to go back to it because it’s just a habit now. I think I’ll automatically start saving packets of crisps.”
On average, the former Hull University employee collects 279 packets of crisps a month, sometimes picking them up on the street. He even said that sometimes people even save packets so Gary can add them to his collection.
Gary said: “Sometimes I’ll pick up a neat packet if it’s on the floor. One time when I picked something up, the litter guard asked me if I had actually dropped it.”
“I had to tell him I was collecting it. I could have been fined £100. But look at the CCTV to see me pick it up. I told him, “The camera never lies. I’m very good at it.” Recycle.
“Alisha takes a packet of potato chips to school and takes them home. But she might come home with a few more packets that she got from her friends. So the message got through. It is.”
Gary grills all his chips, rolls them into little balls and stores them in a storage container. He said he wanted to preserve this wonderful collection and create a water exhibit to support cancer charities.
“You can’t lift a box, you have to be the strongest man in the world,” said Gary, a father of three sons. “People always think it will sink, but it actually floats.
“I’d love to do something with them for a cancer charity. Like putting them in a fountain or something. They’re colorful, so that would work. Using them. “We don’t know what we’ll do with it, but we can build water facilities.” ”
When Gary started his unique hobby, Joanne called him a “nerd” but quickly became hooked. He now thinks she would be “surprised” if she found out how big his collection is.
Gary, from Cottingham, East Yorkshire. “I wanted them to say, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be back on your feet within six months,’ but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
“She’ll be surprised. She once called me a lunatic for collecting them. If she came out of that grave, she’d say wow.”