A dinner to benefit 5-year-old Everest Grenke Leach has been set for Friday at the Marquette Holiday Inn. The youngster was diagnosed with cancer in October.

MARQUETTE — A benefit dinner will be held Friday for a young boy battling a rare childhood cancer. Everest Grenke Leach, 5, was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma last October and treatment has taken the family far away from their Calumet home. Everest and his parents, Bill and Liz, spent the last five months at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing. They have now moved to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he will continue treatment for another eight to 10 months. Neuroblastoma is tumor of the nerve tissue, which began in Everest’s adrenal gland, but has spread to his spine, pelvis, leg bones and bone marrow. Only about 630 children are diagnosed with neuroblastoma in the United States each year. Both parents have left their jobs and Everest’s 20-month old sister Charlotte stays in Marquette with her two sets of grandparents. “Everest is just a remarkable little boy. He is fighting,” said his grandmother Sandy Grenke.