Fundraiser is set to help family of five-year-old with brain tumors

Not long ago Brayden Butts had a normal life with his family here in Sidney. That was until he rolled out of bed in the middle of the night on February 29. Early that morning his mother, Mindy Butts, said that she did not have a good feeling with how hard Brayden hit his head.

It was in the emergency room at Sidney Regional Medical center that the Butts family's lives were flipped upside down when they received new that Brayden had a brain tumor located behind his eyes.

Brayden has officially been diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1), with Noonan's characteristics. These types of tumors are 99 percent non-cancerous. That has led doctors not to test Brayden's tumors for cancer. Brayden's vision is the most affected as he cannot see color with his right eye and can only see some color out of his left eye. That does affect his balance.

Brayden has a total of four tumors – the biggest one is behind his right eye, one behind his left eye and two on his spine. He is currently going through weekly chemotherapy (which is the only proven treatment to stop the growth of tumors in NF1) at Children's Hospital in Denver. He has currently gone through nine rounds of chemo of 52 rounds of treatment.

In addition to chemotherapy treatments, Brayden also has to go through an MRI every three months. For that he has to be sedated for since it is three hours long. He also has to get his blood drawn twice a week to make sure that his white blood cell count is high enough to receive chemo that week.

Mindy says that last week he almost had to receive a blood transfusion because his white blood cell numbers were so low before chemo.

Brayden started kindergarten this week and will be attending Monday through Thursday and going to Denver every Friday. Mindy says Brayden's biggest issue, besides his vision, is that he won't eat anything besides eggs. So Brayden is losing weight and doesn't have much energy.

Mindy said Brayden enjoys being at home in his comfort zone where he knows that he can rest at any time and there will not be anyone trying to poke him with needles.

This Saturday, Aug. 27 there will be a fundraiser for the Butts family at First United Methodist Church at 2622 11th Ave. in Sidney. This event will be from 4 to 6 p.m. All of the proceeds will go directly towards Brayden's medical care and helping the family with the cost of travel and hotels while going back and forth to Denver.

There will be many fundraiser activities for your entire family including: a bounce house, face-painting, games, chilidog dinner and a silent auction. Action items include Husker tickets, Cheyenne County Community Center Family passes, Bally Neal golf for four, Elitch Garden tickets, beef raffle, and gift certificates.