Relay for Life is a fun, team-based, overnight event to help raise funds for the American Cancer Society. In this event each team member commits to raise money. For the 12 hours the event runs, there will be someone from each team walking around the track. The event was held June 11 and although it is over, please consider sending a donation to the American Cancer Society in his memory.

Michael's Mighty Marchers is the relay team in memory of Michael Downing, who lived in Port Jefferson Station. His life was short and tragic. His father was firefighter John Downing who lost his life on Fathers Day, June 17, 2001. Exactly one year later Michael, 3 years old, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. He fought the disease for 14 months before losing the battle on October 20,2003. He was five years old.

Maureen Bishop, Michael's aunt writes: "we all know someone who has died from or survive cancer. they all have a story to tell. I am asking you to help by making a donation to the American Cancer Society in memory of your loved one. At 9:30 pm on Friday, June 11 there was a lumaria ceremony. Lumaria with candles, each bearing the name of a cancer victim or survivor circled the Comsewogue track."

The PDF file is a form- please fill it out in memory of your loved one and help Michael's Mighty Marchers raise funds for a truly worthwhile cause.
Read more about Michael Downing

He's heaven's little 'fireman'
By ALICE McQUILLAN   DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU

"Heaven must have its youngest firefighter."
That was the heartbreaking epitaph yesterday for 5-year-old Michael Downing, who lost his brave battle with cancer this week - two years after losing his hero firefighter dad in the 2001 Father's Day blaze in Queens.

"This is so unfair," said Firefighter Bob O'Neill, a family friend.

Michael, whose short life was filled with more tragedy than any child should ever have to bear, first complained of pain during a plaque dedication at his dad's firehouse a year after the fire that killed three Bravest.

He was soon diagnosed with neuroblastoma and died Monday at his family's Long Island home following months of painful treatments.

The morning after her brother died, Joanne Downing, 9, got out of bed and wrote him a letter. The little girl had gone through the same grim, but life-affirming ritual when her father died on the day everyone celebrates their dads.

"Michael: Amazing, tough, sweet, cute, cool, friendly. My brother. Love, Joanne," she wrote, slipping the note yesterday into his casket.

Hundreds of grief-stricken mourners filed past that casket yesterday at a Woodside, Queens, funeral home as they tried to comfort Anne Downing, who has been left to cope with the premature loss of her husband and her only son.

"No words can express the depths of sorrow and pain this family has endured," said Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta. "Through it all, Anne and her family have been incredibly heroic. The entire Fire Department is awed and inspired by her."

Friends said Anne Downing remained strong during all the hospital trips, and spent every moment possible with Michael while trying also to support Joanne - her partner in the crushing double loss.

An immigrant from Kilkeel in County Down, Ireland, Anne Downing has been drawing strength from her large family and Catholic faith, as well as her extended family of firefighters and cops, friend say.

"He was a young boy, had his life cut short but the family has a strong religious background and is keeping the faith," said O'Neill of Ladder Co. 163, Downing's firehouse in Woodside. "Heaven must have its youngest firefighter."

Irish tenor Ronan Tynan, who was among Michael's many hospital visitors, will sing at the boy's funeral tomorrow morning.

Hundreds of firefighters and police officers have donated blood in Michael's name to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he underwent countless transfusions and operations.

Neuroblastoma, typically a childhood cancer, attacks the nervous system. With Michael, the cancer began in his spine, spread to his liver, lungs, brain and settled in the bones of his legs and feet.

He was just 3 when he was diagnosed a year after his 40-year-old father and two other firefighters died in a five-alarm blaze and explosion at a hardware store that was improperly storing propane tanks and paint.

Downing and Rescue 4 Firefighter Harry Ford, 50, died when the store's roof crashed around them. Firefighter Brian Fahey, 46, died after being trapped in the basement.

The Downing family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to:

The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Neuroblastoma Cancer Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, MSKCC, 1275 York Ave., New York, NY 10021, and The New York City Firefighters Burn Center Foundation, 21 Asch Loop, The Bronx, NY 10475.

Tomorrow's funeral Mass will begin at 10:30 a.m. at St. Sebastian's Church, at 58th St. and Roosevelt Ave. in Woodside.

Originally published on October 23, 2003
 
DAILY NEWS
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 In grief, strength
 
A 'mom dealt the toughest hand'
 
By ALICE McQUILLAN
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU
 
Police officers and firefighters talk outside funeral home during wake for Michael Downing. 
 
As she stood near her 5-year-old son's coffin in a Queens funeral home yesterday, Anne Downing held the hands of mourners, giving them as much comfort as they tried to give her.
"I wish," she said sadly, "we had found the cure."

Hundreds of mourners who paid their respects found themselves filled with overwhelming sadness for Michael, who lost his valiant 16-month battle with cancer on Monday.

But they also marveled at how Anne has handled her double loss. Two years ago, her husband, John, died with two other firefighters in a horrible Father's Day blaze.

"Anne is an amazing woman. She has an inner strength and power that's unbelievable," said Irish tenor Ronan Tynan, who will sing at Michael's funeral Mass today at St. Sebastian's Church in Woodside.
"If ever a woman got dealt the toughest hand in life, that woman did," Tynan added. "And she would never lean on anybody or ask anything. She's an example ... in the manner in which she has carried her cross."
Signs of her loss filled the room at the Kennedy Roth Funeral home, decorated with pictures of her son.
There's Michael, smiling at his 5th birthday party in August. There's Michael, poking just his face out of a foamy bubble bath. There's Michael, looking delighted to be at Disney World.

He never got to finish kindergarten or wear his Batman costume on Halloween. Instead, friends took him trick-or-treating recently, knowing he would not last until the holiday.

His uncle Frank McCullagh said the Long Island boy was a fighter, feisty until the end, full of opinions about his favorite TV shows or the best place to buy the fruit ices he liked.

McCullagh praised the unending support from firefighters and cops, who gave the boy their blood for transfusions and their time to cheer him up.

During one of Michael's many hospitalizations at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, a fire truck pulled up outside the boy's room. They stretched the ladder to Michael's fifth-floor room and pasted a get-well card to the window.

Yesterday, an honor guard of police officers stood outside the Woodside funeral parlor while hundreds of cops and firefighters streamed inside.

Two of John Downing's brothers, James and Joseph, are cops, and a third, Denis, is a firefighter.

Friends and relatives worry that Anne Downing has not had enough time to mourn her husband and now has to cope with her son's death while taking care of her 9-year-old daughter, Joanne.

"The batteries are running out," Downing conceded, managing a polite smile. "It's been rough."

She said she hoped news about Michael's battle against neuroblastoma might inspire others to donate money for research and blood for transfusions.

"Poor Anne," said Tynan. "She's lost her husband and here we go again. What do you say, except 'We love you and are there for you'?"

Originally published on October 24, 2003