SPENCER URENBig-hearted marketing manager Spencer Uren won a place on the Channel 4 reality cookery show Come Dine With Me hoping to win the £1,000 for his sister who was battling cancer.
But in a tragic twist of fate, Mr Uren was himself diagnosed with cancer after filming was complete and died before the programmes were screened.
Other contestants from the show were so moved by Spencer's sudden diagnosis and subsequent death that they have launched a campaign in his name.
'Come Dine For Spencer' encourages people to hold their own dinner party and to raise £250,000 for cancer patients.
Fellow contestant Richard Carpenter, an electrician, said: "Spencer was a really nice guy. We had agreed to meet up and have an evening together.
"It was quite shocking how quickly he went from being a bit ill to being very ill."
The shows featuring Mr Uren were screened for the first time from January 11-15, 2010, and repeated again in March that year.
Another of the contestants, Gill Buley, said: "Spencer was a lovely chap. He came in and out of my life so quickly, but we would have been friends for a long time if he was still here.
"After the show we saw each other regularly and it was a terrible shock when he was also diagnosed with cancer."
Filming took place in January 2009 and Mr Uren, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, lost his battle with the disease on May 31 that year.
Mr Uren's mother Nona, said it had been devastating to find out two of her four children had cancer within four months of each other.
Mr Uren's sister Sorelle said: "When Spencer told me he was through to Come Dine With Me, I thought it was hilarious.
"Then he told me the reason why - to help me pay my mortgage because I was having chemotherapy and couldn't work.
"I know he loved me so much, like I do him.
"I'm so proud of him and miss him heaps."
http://www.dailymail .co.uk/ news/article-1243204 /Come- Dine-With-Me-contest ant- wanted-prize-money-h elp- sister-cancer-dies-d iagnosed- disease.html#ixzz0cc gbFaC6 [Daily Mail]
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