Kind-hearted customers at a Cranham chip shop have proved they are the salt of the earth by raising �1,000 for a cancer charity.

Sea World on Willow Parade has been collecting money for the Christine Willett Trust over the last seven years – and to say thank you the charity presented the staff with a special certificate.

The Christine Willett Trust buys equipment for hospitals in Essex and East London that have cancer units – including Queen’s Hospital in Romford, to whom it gave �20,000 worth of computer equipment in 2008. It was founded by Colin Willett in 1993 in memory of his wife Christine, who died of breast cancer.