A grieving son took a £1,000 diamante-encrusted cake to his late mum’s graveside to give her the extravagant 80th birthday party she so desperately wanted.

John Byrne commissioned a lilac cake, because it was mum Lorna Byrne’s favourite colour, and had it decorated with feathers, butterflies and 100 silk roses.

The three-tiered tribute was displayed on a sparkling glass and crystal stand, which cost almost £500, as Mrs Byrne’s friends gathered to celebrate her birthday.

Her 54-year-old son organised the party at Northfleet Cemetery to keep his promise to his beloved mum, who died four years ago, to give her a special 80th.

He said: “Mum was so looking forward to it. She was at her friend’s party and when the cake came out she said ‘I’m really looking forward to my 80th because I know you’re going to do something special for me’.

“She was very glamorous and over the top. I wanted a cake that was exaggerated because mum was a colourful person.

“It went absolutely fantastically. We cut the cake and let off the peace balloons.

“One of them was pink because that was also one of mum’s favourite colours.

“I broke down in tears halfway through the reading but I had to pull myself together and carry on for mum.

“It was the last thing I could do for my mum and I put everything I had into it.”

Mr Byrne, a former social worker who now owns a burger van, spent almost £2,000 on the birthday party, purchasing a decorative arch to put over the grave as well as the cake, which was made by Janet Steel.

He read a blessing and a poem he wrote about his mum.

Mrs Byrne, who lived in Ebbsfleet Walk, Northfleet, had six children and ran homes for ex-prisoners and homeless people in her younger days.

In the 1970s she was the first woman to be a best man at a wedding, her son said.

She wore a three-piece suit and the wedding took place in a large church in Lincoln.

The former ballet dancer died on February 28, 2013 after battling cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Her son said: “It’s been awful. I’ve never quite got over it. I go down every day to put flowers on the grave.

“She was glamorous in life and now her grave is glamorous.”

Mrs Byrne’s actual birthday was March 10, but she also celebrated it on March 17.