A WHOLE lotta shakin’ has been going on between two would-be record breakers.

If all has gone to plan by the time readers are thumbing through your Worcester News the city will have two record-breaking hand-shakers, university students Sam Harman and Jamie Osbourne.

They will have successfully battled through shared toilet breaks, muscle cramps in their arms, boredom, sleep deprivation and the knowledge – part-way through their own attempt – that somebody else had already set an even longer record.

Mr Harman, aged 21, and friend Mr Osbourne, 22, have been carrying out their bid in aid of Cancer Research UK and hope to raise more than £1,000.

They started out on Tuesday, wearing Star Wars stormtrooper fancy dress, with the aim of shaking hands for more than 16 hours.

But at 2am yesterday morning, they were told a group of “professional record-breakers” had smashed the record during an attempt in New York’s Time Square and set the new mark at 33 hours.

By 9.30pm last night, the duo were set to have broken that new record.

Once completed, evidence of the record will be sent to Guiness World Records who have the final say on whether the record has been set.

Mr Harman, speaking during the record attempt, said: “We’re going to do it.”