Cancer Support House names new executive director

Martha Pendleton will soon direct the Cancer Support Foundation of the Donald W. Reynolds Cancer Support House, succeeding Mary Lee Frase who is set to retire Oct. 16.

Pendleton will begin her duties Oct. 19.

Doug Babb, CEO of Cooper Clinic and president of the foundation board of directors, said Pendleton’s personal and career background is well suited for the foundation director job.

“Martha brings her own personal understanding of the importance of support during cancer. Her family, like so many others, has been affected with this disease,” Babb said in a statement. “She also brings experience in fundraising, grant writing, marketing, education and management.”

Pendleton has worked as director of marketing at St. Edward Mercy Medical Center, grants coordinator for the Mercy Foundation, site director for John Brown University, and has taught for the University of Arkansas Fayetteville College of Education and Health Professions. She and her husband, Patrick, have two children.

Babb praised Frase for her four years of “exemplary dedication” to the foundation and thanked Frase — who is a cancer survivor — for her help in finding a replacement. Frase had a 24-year career in broadcasting prior to working for the foundation.

“I have been one of the thousands who received emotional support from this organization during cancer treatment so I have had a personal passion for the work done here,” Frase noted. “Retirement will be a new chapter for me, and I am fortunate to know that I am forwarding the foundation to such capable hands.”

The Cancer Support House — located at 3324 S. M St., in Fort Smith — provides an array of services to cancer patients in a 14-county area of Northwest Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma. In 2008, it served 407 new patients, conducted 21 support groups with 422 patients, distributed 1,222 wigs, hats and turbans and provided financial assistance to uninsured and underinsured patients, according to information from the foundation.