Gary has been collecting since his wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer
To store the packets, Gary grills the packaging, rolls them up into balls, and puts them in storage containers
A dad from Bristol who started collecting packets when his partner was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer has announced his hobby will be coming to a crisp halt after twelve years.
Gary, 60, has collected over 24,000 packets, and says his favourite flavour is the classic Walker’s ready salted.
Mr Keys kept collecting after his partner, Joanne, passed away, but as his youngest child, Alisha, is leaving school this year he has made the decision to cease his collection.
‘I think not collecting them is really going to get to me,’ he said.
‘I might have to go back to it as it’s just a habit now. I think I’ll automatically start saving the packets of crisp.’
Gary, who works at the University of Hull, is well known for his collection, and says that his friends will save their packets to give to him.
‘I sometimes will pick up a decent packet if it’s on the floor.
‘I once picked something up and a litter warden actually asked me if I had dropped it.
‘I had to tell him that I was collecting them – I could have got a £100 fine for it.
‘But I told him to look on the CCTV to see me picking it up – the cameras never lie. I’m very good at recycling.
‘Alisha takes a packet of crisps to school and then brings it home – but she might come home with another few packets that her friends have given her.
‘So the message has got across.’
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The impressive collection, which grows by an average of 279 packets a month, is stored in plastic containers, after the packets have been grilled and rolled up.
Gary says he hopes to turn his hoard of packets into a water feature in aid of a cancer charity.
‘I can’t lift the boxes – I would need to be the world’s strongest man. People always think that they will sink but they actually float.
‘I want to do something with them for a cancer charity – like putting them in a fountain or something.
‘They are colourful so it would work.
‘I just don’t know what I’ll do with them but I could make a water feature.’
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