C2000 urges channel to Come Dine With Me

Broadline giant set to hold a range of fundraising incentives to help raise money for new cancer charity started by former employee

Left to right: Richard Carpenter, Sophie Branfield, Gabrielle Hennig, Spencer Uren and Gill Buley

Computer 2000 (C2000) is throwing its weight behind a challenge to raise thousands for a local cancer charity after a former employee appeared in a poignant episode of Channel 4’s Come Dine With Me.

Gill Buley spent seven years at C2000 as marketing manager before leaving to set up her own channel-focused marketing services business.

Her appearance on Come Dine With Me (aired this week), sparked a chain of events that led to her launching a new cancer charity today – Come Dine For Spencer – in memory of one of her fellow contestants, Spencer Uren.

The concept of Come Dine with Me is that five strangers get together and take it in turns to cook each other a meal every night. Each diner is then asked to score the other on their performance and the winner receives £1,000.

When Buley, Uren and three other contestants got together, they had no idea how events would pan out, but four of them became firm friends after filming finished.

Uren, 37, sadly died six months after the show was filmed from a rare form of pancreatic cancer.

His initial reason for wanting to win the show was to donate his winnings to the Basingstoke hospital that was treating his younger sister for cancer at the time. He had no idea that he would be the one fighting the disease just weeks later.

As a result, Buley, who won the show and shared her winnings with Uren, is planning to raise a minimum of £250,000 for patients at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital.

C2000 will play its part by holding a number of incentive days to raise money for the charity, and is also planning dress-down days to make more cash. It is also working with vendors such as Samsung, Sony and Microsoft to source IT equipment such as Xboxes and PlayStations for the ward.

Speaking to CRN, Buley said: “Spencer came into my life for such a short space of time, but he made a huge impact. I would love the whole IT industry to get behind this charity, hold events of their own and help to make a difference to a worthwhile charity."