Noreen Fraser, Stand up to Cancer cofounder . By Sam Roberts New York
Times . Noreen Fraser, a television producer who used her broadcasting
skills to raise money and public awareness in a national campaign
against breast cancer, died Monday at her home in Brentwood, Calif.,
more than 15 years after she learned she had the disease. She was 63.
Her death, caused by the cancer, was confirmed by her publicist,
Jennifer Styles. Ms. Fraser was a founder and producer of "Stand Up to
Cancer," a telethon for women's cancer research. She sought to
coordinate competing experiments and treatment programs; started a Men
for Women Now campaign to alert women to early detection and
prevention; and established a foundation to fund research into all
tumors that are unique to women. The foundation evolved into the Noreen
Fraser Fund for Women's Cancer Research at the Jonsson Comprehensive
Cancer Center of the University of California, Los Angeles. "I have
made cancer my business," Ms. Fraser said. Ms. Fraser was a producer of
"Entertainment Tonight," ABC's "Home Show," and "The Richard Simmons
Show. She received her breast cancer diagnosis in 2001, when she was
46; within two years, it had metastasized into her bones and liver.
While being treated, she survived with Stage 4 cancer for more than 16
years. "She didn't know if she'd see her children graduate from grade
school, then high school, then college," her husband, the TV producer
Woody Fraser, told The Los Angeles Times. "She did, but not her
daughter's upcoming wedding. Ms. Fraser founded the Noreen Fraser
Foundation in 2006; two years later, the Entertainment Industry
Foundation broadcast the first of five "Stand Up to Cancer" telethons,
which was said to have raised $100 million alone. The telethon was
broadcast simultaneously on ABC, NBC, CBS, and abroad. The hosts were
three network news figures, Katie Couric of CBS, Brian Williams of NBC,
and Charles Gibson of ABC, each of whom had an immediate family member
who had died of cancer. Subsequent telethons, which were shown on cable
channels as well as on major networks, were broadcast in 2010, 2012,
2014, and 2016. The idea of setting aside an hour of prime time to
raise money for cancer had originated with several people in
broadcasting and film. While receiving chemotherapy, Ms. Fraser asked
her doctor to introduce her to another breast cancer patient, Laura
Ziskin, a movie producer who had the "Spider-Man" franchise and "Pretty
Woman" among her credits. Ms. Fraser suggested a cable television
special to raise money for cancer research and awareness. "I'm
frustrated by the pace of new therapies to save my life and other
people's lives," she recalled. A larger group coalesced, including
Sherry Lansing, a former chief executive of Paramount Pictures; Lisa
Paulsen, the president and chief executive of the Entertainment
Industry Foundation; Ellen Ziffren, a philanthropist, and her husband,
Ken, an entertainment lawyer; and Ann Sweeney, the president of the
Disney-ABC Television Group. Their efforts eventually melded with those
of Couric, who had used her television platform to raise awareness, and
millions of dollars, for colon cancer, which claimed her husband, Jay
Monahan, in 1998. Ziskin died in 2011 at 61. Noreen Friend was born on
Dec. 6, 1953, in Cleveland, the daughter of Fred Friend, a lawyer, and
the former Jackie Kofron. She graduated from the University of Dayton
in Ohio and received a master's degree in television and communications
from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. In addition to her
husband, she leaves her parents; her children, Madeline and Mack
Fraser; and her siblings, Laura Barney, Lucy Hutchison, Bridget Laurin,
and Colleen, Buzz, Cooper, Bill, and Patrick Friend.
