Utterly grim 1kg ball of wax Babybel addict made out of cheese’s skin

A man who has been saving the wax rinds of his Babybel cheese for more than two decades said he plans to hand it down to his children.

Darren Thomas, from Bristol, has been collecting the discarded wrappers from his lunchbox cheeses since he was 12.

He is now the proud owner of a 1,026g ball of discoloured paraffin wax, which looks horrifying.

Darren, 36, a railway operations delivery manager, said: ‘I’ve had the ball since I was about twelve. I remember just playing with the wax in my hands so I kept one and then added another the next day. It just grew from there.

‘I keep it on my windowsill in my kitchen, that’s probably why it’s a little discoloured, but it’s the first thing people see when they walk into my house.

‘They usually ask what it is, and when I tell them, they say it is disgusting.’

Darren has had to convince his wife to let him display it in their home, but she still believes it is ‘a load of c***’.

‘She hates it, but I won’t let it go. She thinks it’s stupid and a poor waste of my time; she says it’s unsightly and a load of c***. But I’m quite proud of it,’ he said.

‘I plan to hand it down to one of my children, probably my youngest one, as he seems to appreciate it for what it’s truly worth,’ he said.

The ball, which is made up of up to 200 cheese waxes has seen better days, even gets bugs stuck to it, with Darren saying he once had to remove a wasp.

‘I used to work away a lot and would be away from home around 120 nights a year in hotels,’ he said.

‘The Holiday Inns I would stay at often had them at the breakfast buffet so I would nab a few each morning and take the wax home.’

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