AN ENTERPRISING dinner-lady is using her spectacular display of Christmas lights to raise money to help patients with an incurable lung disease.

Alison Tokley, 45, decorates the front of her home in Langenhoe with colourful Christmas scenes every year, but this winter she decided to use the attention it attracts to help a good cause.

Her family live near Clare Lauwerys who, like Alison, has children at Langenhoe Primary School.

Mrs Lauwerys suffers from LAM, a very rare disease that causes the lungs to waste away, so her daughter Hannah, 11, suggested that they do something to help her.

Mrs Tokley said: “I’d always been impressed by Clare’s energy, I’d see her at the school gates and she’d always be smiling.”

After some research Alison found a charity, LAM LAM Action, which supports patients and their families with this rare disorder.

She hopes that the lights will help to raise awareness of LAM.

The lights have already drawn many passers-by to stop and look at them, especially children.

Mrs Lauwerys has thanked the Tokley family.

“This is the best early Christmas present and I am extremely grateful,” she said.

Donations to help research can be made through the charity’s website.