PLANS — Making plans for Friday’s all day fundraiser at Scaffidi’s to benefit Neiko Boni, a 3-year-old diagnosed with Langerhans Histiocytosis who now faces a year of chemotherapy after doctors removed a cancerous lesion from his skull, were, from left (front) Guy Lamantia and his wife, Theresa; Neiko’s parents, Jake Boni and Keasha Barz; and Lucia Scaffidi; (rear) owners Dawn Lamantia Scaffidi and her husband, Nino Scaffidi; Steubenville Police Chief Ken Anderson; Neiko’s paternal grandfather, Sam Boni; and Steubenville Police Detective Sgt. Ryan Lulla. Dawn and Nino Scaffidi say 20 percent of Friday’s total sales--takeouts as well as those dining in--will be donated to the family. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — A family-owned business has stepped up to help a family grappling with their soon-to-be 3-year-old son’s chemotherapy treatment after he was diagnosed with Langerhans Histiocytosis, a rare disorder in which the body makes too many Langerhans white blood cells.

Scaffidi’s Restaurant & Tavern is donating 20 percent of its total sales Friday, in-house and take out, to help young Neiko Boni and his parents, Steubenville Police Patrolmen Keasha Barz and Jake Boni.

The all-day fundraiser will include drawings Friday for a wine basket donated by City of Steubenville Utility Office employees as well as other items donated for the fundraiser. Steubenville Police Detective Sgt. Ryan Lulla, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 1, helped pull that together.

Through April 7, they’ll also be selling tickets for a chance at winning a Paul Skenes autographed baseball and a Bryan Reynolds autographed bat (donated by Steubenville native Pat Hagerty; a bourbon basket donated by Councilman at large Joel Walker; a gift-card tree donated by the Steubenville police wives.

“We take pride in being able to help people in our community,” owners Nino Scaffidi and his wife, Dawn, said. “We feel like that’s one of the core values of what we do here, being able to reach out to people in need throughout the community. We try what we can and do what we can to help.”

Police Chief Ken Anderson said the project underscores the deep bond between current and former police officers — among them, Dawn (Lamantia) Scaffidi’s father, Guy, and grandfather, both retired from the city police and her brother, Joe, who retired from the sheriff’s department. Boni’s father also retired from the city police force.

“It’s just a special connection between the families,” Anderson said. “That’s why it means so much to us.”

Langerhans cells are a type of white blood cell found in the skin, lungs, stomach, bones, eyes, and intestines. According to St. Jude Childrens Hospital, in LCH these cells build up, forming tumors and disrupting the normal function of tissues. St. Jude describes LCH as a form of cancer which oftenrequires chemotherapy.

Neiko was hospitalized in December for a bump on his head that wouldn’t go away and ended up having a craniotomy in Pittsburgh to remove the lesion, Barz said.

She said when she first saw the lump on his head she was concerned but worried that she was reading too much into it. But the lump started growing and one morning while they were bathing him she said Neiko “began crying, saying he couldn’t see and that his eyes were hurting and the lights were hurting his eyes. He was just holding his hands in front of his eyes and asking us to turn the lights off.”

When they described it for his doctors they immediately referred the family to UPMC Pittsburgh.

“They did a biopsy when they removed the lesion and we found for sure that he had cancer in January,” she said. “He has been doing chemotherapy for the last six weeks and he just had his scans this week to determine whether or not the chemo is working.”

Barz said from the time she first saw the bump on Neiko’s head to his surgery about a month later the lesion had doubled in size.

“It was actually touching his brain tissue by the time they went in, which they weren’t expecting at that point,” Barz said, with Boni explaining that, “When it grew, it went through both layers of skull and was into the tissue–any longer and it would have been attached to his brain and it would have made it a much more extensive surgery possibly with a lot more side effects like brain damage and stuff.”

Barz said their son must undergo chemo for the rest of the year.

“We found out they didn’t get it all during his surgery,” she said. “It was actually attached to his orbital bone and there was actually no way for them to see it when they were in there removing everything.”

It was only after surgery, when his doctors were able to do a PET scan, that they discovered some of the cancer was still inside him.

Boni said the surgery took several hours “but felt like forever.”

“But for what they had to do and everything, I cannot thank them enough,” he said, adding that without it, Neiko “could have lost a lot of neurological functions and stuff like that.”

“I really can’t say ‘thank you’ enough for everybody who has helped out and wanted to reach out and everything like that,” he said. “It’s all been incredible and maybe a little overwhelming.”

Barz said they also think it’s important when parents see something that doesn’t seem right, they need to tell their doctor.

“Our biggest thing is just (to make parents realize) they just have to kind of trust their gut,” she said. “I feel like something like this, it was very sudden. I feel like if we waited and held off it could have been way worse.”