An Essex chef has turned his burger business van into a moving Christmas tree with more than 3,200 fairy lights and his partner's car with a modest 350 lights.

Billy Zarb - owner of Burger Bills - decided last that he would bring a bit of colour to his usual plain white van which tows his mobile burger kitchen.

“We go to lots of car shows and roadshows and just wanted to do something that would bring attention to the van” said the 33-year-old who has had his own business for just under a year.

Billy and his partner and business partner Warren Samsa spent nearly five hours covering Billy's towing van and Warren's car with 350 lights

The lights are plugged into the cigarette lighter in the van but need a power converter to stay on.

Billy said: “It’s not only just a bit of festive fun, we are supporting the Sharon Dunster Foundation, which is a charity set up after Sharon passed away in 2016. She died of a very rare form of cancer called Mucosal Melanoma.

This is a cancer that lives in the warm mucous parts of the body,genitals, nose and oesophagus.

Research into this cancer is not funded by the NHS.

Sharon's greiving husband Steve, of Great Baddow, near Chelmsford, said his wife had radical surgery to remove tumours but it was unsuccessful she went on to have immune therapy but that also failed.

He said: "We have set up a foundation with The Imperial College in London and are starting a young doctor on a 3 year PHD researching Mucosal Melanoma NOT FUNDED BY NHS.

"We believe this is the first, only and largest research into Mucosal Melanoma in the UK.

“We’ve had an amazing reaction on Facebook, we’ve had more than 700 likes and I’m hoping that tonight when we go out we get lots of attention.”

Billy, from Harold Hill, added: “I’ve never done this before, so we will just have to wait and see what people say.
 Best of all we can help to promote the Foundation."