AN inspirational Alvechurch boy has broken the Guinness World Record for having the most teddy bears in a row.

Incredibly, 15,534 bears were lined up on May 3 at the annual Alvechurch Party in the Park event smashing the world record, which stood at 4,041, more than three times over.

Finlay Church, who was diagnosed with a grade 4 glioblastoma multiforme brain tumour last June, decided to take on the challenge to help raise vital funds for Brian Tumour Research and Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Originally, Finlay, who was recovering from further brain surgery at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, was thought too unwell to attend and a video link was set up so that he could still see the world record attempt.

On Sunday, May 3, he began watching the video link and saw the first bear being laid.

Later, staff gave him the green light and he was able to make the journey back to Alvechurch and he laid the last bear at around 6.30pm.

Finlay’s grandmother, Mary Shephard, said: “It was a poignant moment.

“It has been a best thing for him, well, he has had something to focus on and the fact we smashed it-smashed it over again- and that he could be there, well, the family are over the moon.”

She added that the family thanked everyone involved including, the event organisers, Alvechurch villagers and Morrisons in Redditch.

More than 2,000 people attended the event and three teams of adjudicators gave up their time by taking four hour shifts to check everything had been carried out correctly.

During the appeal, numerous celebrities including Ollie Murs, Sir Alex Ferguson and Eamonn Holmes backed Finlay’s appeal by posing for pictures with a teddy bear and the hashtag optedybear.

The family now hope Finlay will be able to get his name into the book of Guinness World Records.