THE memory of a Basingstoke man will live on through a charity crusade that is being championed by his fellow contestants on a reality TV show.

The Channel 4 show Come Dine With Me, featuring five contestants from north Hamp-shire has been broadcast every evening this week.

The contestants take it in turns to hold a dinner party for complete strangers at their respective homes, and after scoring one another’s efforts, the best cook and host wins £1,000.

Filming took place in January 2009 and included 37-year-old Basingstoke man Spencer Uren. He took part in the programme in the hope of winning the prize money so he could give it to his younger sister Sorelle so that she could pay her mortgage while she was being treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer.

But in a cruel twist, the former marketing manager for Super Breaks discovered soon after filming ended that he had pancreatic cancer, and he lost his battle with the killer disease on May 31 last year.

Spencer, of Hackwood Road, impressed his fellow contestants so much that three of them have now set out to raise £250,000 to improve patient facilities at Basingstoke hospital’s cancer ward in his memory.

Participant Gill Buley, whose dinner party was shown on Monday evening, set up the charity ‘Come Dine for Spencer’, with the idea that people hold their own parties and donate the figure on their scorecard to the charity.

The mother-of-one, from Crofters Meadow, Lychpit, said she found out Spencer had cancer at a reunion party for the contestants.

She added: “It was sad and only a couple of weeks later that he died. He 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.”

Electrician Richard Carpenter, 44, from Farnham, hosted his dinner party on the third night, and said the whole experience had been one he will never forget.

He added: “It was really good fun. Spencer was a really nice guy. We had agreed to meet up and have an evening together, and it was quite shocking how quickly he went from being a bit ill to being very ill.”

Gabrielle Hennig, a 58-year-old graphics teacher at Queen Mary’s College, who lives in Basingstoke, said her Italian-style dinner party had not gone according to plan, but added: “I enjoyed meeting all the people and cooking the food. My dinner did go wrong. But I think the reality behind it is now, I’m here looking at it and Spencer isn’t.

“The saddest thing is seeing someone who I got to know really well and who isn’t any longer with us.”

Spencer’s mother Nona, from Bounty Road, Basingstoke, said it had been devastating to find out two of her children had cancer within four months of each other.

She added: “It’s not how it should be because you don’t expect your children to die before you. Spencer was funny and had such a good sense of humour.”

Mrs Uren and her husband Ray, who run Hair and Beauty Limited salon in Oakley with their son Bradley, are now hoping their daughter will be given the all-clear from Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which is a cancer of the lymph nodes.

Sorelle, 27, 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.”

Shelagh Goddard, lead nurse for cancer at Basingstoke hospital, said she hoped the new charity would be a success, adding: “Gill has shown fantastic generosity and compassion during tough economic times, and I hope viewers will follow suit in her endeavour to raise money for cancer patients by hosting their own dinner parties.”

* Details of how to take part in Come Dine for Spencer will be released on the Channel 4 website channel4.com/dine today, after the final episode is shown today at 5.30pm. This is when Spencer hosts his dinner party and the winner is revealed.