SIDNEY -- The Sidney community came together Wednesday to show support for one of its own.

Brayden Butts, son of Mike and Mindy Butts of Sidney, is a bright teen with a brighter smile.  was on the Honor Roll for the second semester of the 2024-2025 school year. He is a bright, cheerful student.

He is also facing medical challenges.

"Our son Brayden Butts, he was born with Neurofibromatosis. So he has two brain tumors, one each behind the eye, and then one in the middle of his brain," his mother Mindy Butts said.

The Dairy Queen in Sidney hosted a fund-raising event for the Butts family Wednesday.

Neurofibromatosis (NF) is a group of genetic disorders that affect the nervous system, causing the growth of non-cancerous (benign) tumors on nerves.  Butts said the tumors were discovered when he was five years old.

"He's done chemo on them twice already, and then recently after his second back surgery," she said.

She said the tumor in the middle of his brain has been growing. In September, a biopsy was done. She said it mutated, then fused back together. 

"Children's Hospital has not seen this before, so they are reaching out to other hospitals within the country and outside of the country to see if they've seen this," she said.

She said doctors decided the best course of action is Chemo because of how much it grew. Dairy Queen asked to do an event because Brayden is friends with the Packer's son Nathan.

The diagnosis requires the Butts to make frequent trips to Denver with days often starting at 5 a.m.; sometimes the appointments last for days. His new medicine requires he undergo heart echos every three months.

Brayden doesn't let the medical challenges bother him much, Mindy said.

"He ... he's just always happy. He doesn't let anything affect him as long as it's not the dentist then he's pretty good. The main thing he does not like is getting his blood drawn, but other than that he just lets the doctors do whatever they want to do," she said.

Eric Packer, manager of the Sidney Dairy Queen, said he is glad they could help.

"We're very happy to help in a situation like this. Sidney is a very unique town where we are certainly not the own people who do fundraisers. We're just happy to be among those that do," Packer said.