IT charity gears up for fundraising blitz

IT Relief, the technology industry's official charity, relaunches today under the aegis of a new chairman and with a revamped website (http://www.itrelief.org ).

IT Relief was initially established in 1996 to support Comic Relief, but later went on to work with other charities and good causes. It is now expanding its range of activities and opening up more opportunities for everyone working in IT to give something back to society.

The organisation's new chairman, John Cavill, has been in the industry for over 30 years. He founded networking specialist Logical Networks in 1988, and is currently chairman of e-learning outfit Creating Careers.

He said: "We aim to extend the scope of our fundraising to include more events and encourage new means of participation, to extend the reach of IT Relief into IT departments in companies outside of the IT industry and to touch more lives through our combined efforts."

Fundraising events in the pipeline include a five-a-side football tournament on 27 January, which will see more than 30 teams battle it out for the prestigious IT Relief Challenge Cup, and a trek down the Three Gorges of China's Yangtze River in November 2002 - for more details, see http://www.itrelief.org/gorges .

Several brave individuals are running this year's London Marathon in support of IT Relief, including silicon.com's very own editor-in-chief (UK), Ian Jones. The site's editor, Graham Hayday, is also backing the charity as a member of its committee.