NEW SHARON - A community supper will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. Friday at the Cape Cod Hill School in New Sharon to help the family of Andrew Gifford, a nine-year old boy stricken with a rare cancer-like disease, with expenses and transportation for chemotherapy treatments.

Donations can be sent c/o Cape Cod Hill School, 516 Cape Cod Hill Rd, and New Sharon, ME. 04955.

The spaghetti supper to benefit the New Sharon boy will be held at the Cape Cod Hill School on Cape Cod Hill Road in New Sharon from 5 to 6 p.m. The meal costs $5 per person or $20 per family.

Andrew's grandfather and sole guardian, Cary Gifford, said the child has Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis, a rare cancer-like condition usually treated with chemotherapy. According to the National Institutes of Health, the disease develops when immune cells mistakenly attack the body rather than fight infections. The extra immune cells may form tumors, which target parts of the body including the bones and skull.

It is thought to affect roughly 1 in 200,000 people each year and is most often seen in children ages 1 to 15. Gifford said doctors are optimistic about a positive outcome for Andrew.

"He first started getting bone lesions in July 2007. He complained about his head hurting and doctors found the cells had eaten through the bone in part of his skull. They treated that and thought they had gotten it all. But it came back last April," Gifford said.

Three weeks after that second surgery, Andrews started having pain in his back. This time, doctors found bone lesions on his shoulder blades and ribs. The child is now undergoing a series of chemotherapy treatments at the Children's Cancer Center in Scarborough and has seen specialists at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Gifford said if the disease continues to spread, they will have to pursue more advanced care in Boston.

"He is scared and he is angry. He goes to school when he can but he is struggling emotionally. He is worried all the time," Gifford said.