Sign up for the paper plane charity attempt in Cambridge

Cambridge charity aims to fly more than 12,000 paper aeroplanes to raise funds for children with cancer

For anyone who’s ever enjoyed making paper aeroplanes, here is your chance to do it en masse – and hopefully break a Guiness World Record in the process.

Cambridge charity, Please Take Me There, needs 4,000 people to make paper planes for the record attempt later this year, which will also help raise funds for children with cancer.

On Monday (February 26), the charity announced the attempt, on Parker’s Piece on October 14, will try to smash the record for the most paper planes made in 15 minutes with the aim of flying more than 12,000 of them.

The coming months will be dedicated to signing up ‘record breakers’ across the city, particularly in schools, and teaching children about humanitarian aid, the charity’s work in Myanmar, Ghana and the UK and its aim of raising funds to buy a specially prepared aeroplane to transport sick children.

Although the focus is on the city’s school children (participants must be over the age of seven on the day of the event), everyone is invited to take part and, in order to break the record, the charity must beat the current record, set in Singapore, which saw 1,942 people making 5,826 paper planes.

All of the planes made and thrown on the day will be made of recycled paper and after the event they will be collected and recycled again.

Fernando Pinho, a pilot and founder of Please Take Me There, told the Cambridge Independent: “We only need to have one per cent more, but we want to go all the way to 4,000 people. Parker’s Piece can cope with many more but we will stop at 4,000 – we’ll be very happy with that!”

Fernando, originally from Portugal, explained that the throwing of the planes is not part of the record – it’s the making of them that counts.

“It seems a waste if at the end we don’t throw them, so the idea is that once we have the 12,000 paper planes we will throw them – not all at the same time because we don’t have three hands, but I think over a period of 10 to 15 seconds.

“I think that will be a mindblowing moment to see so many paper planes flying at the same time.”

The money will help the charity with its campaign to buy a plane, allowing it to fly sick children to hospital for treatment as well as take others with serious illnesses on special days out.

It costs £5.30 to secure a place. To join in visit pleasetakemethere.org/Worldrecord.