We were lucky to catch up with Tina Downing recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Small But Mighty Heroes is a childhood cancer nonprofit with a mission to spread awareness, advocate and provide tailored support for children battling cancer, their sibling(s), and their parents. We remain constant, relevant and impactful. We support children through their entire journey, no matter where they are in that journey. They can be newly diagnosed, relapsed, maintenance treatment, in clinical trials, off treatment, cured or passed away. We remain constant and in cases that we lose a child, we help keep their legacies alive.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hi everyone, my name is Tina Downing and I am the Founder/Executive Director of Small But Mighty Heroes.

Small But Mighty Heroes began in 2017 with an idea to advocate and spread awareness of children battling cancer and supported 3 children. By 2019, we became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and today, 2024, we support over 400 children battling cancer, their sibling(s) and their parents offering tailored support through 6 programs.

Through the passion that I have for children, I was inspired by a tragic loss of a child that I was introduced to in 2016. Over the span of nearly a year, I followed his story. I read every blog that mom wrote, I messaged mom and shared his story to the community in hopes that others would fall in love with this little boy and his family and want to help in any way that they could.  This child’s journey opened my eyes to what a true “village” was and the power of a village coming together helped in so many ways that made the journey not as isolated and scary.  My flame burned, but ignited when this sweet blue-eyed little boy passed away at two years old. It broke me and I knew I wanted to help make a difference in the lives of children battling cancer and their families.

We couldn’t do what we do without the support of our community/village. As we say here at Small But Mighty Heroes, “it takes a village and no child fights alone.”

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I knew at the age of 6 that I wanted to work in pediatrics, but convinced and determined to become a pediatrician, I studied pre-med to become a pediatric surgeon. Stepping into the pediatrics medical world at the age of 16, I worked in primary care pediatrics for 7 years while I began my college career. With a Bio-Chem degree with an emphasis in research, I realized my interest in research and wanted to focus more on this area, I wanted to explore while I prepared for med school. Transitioning into cardiovascular, I realized that pediatrics was where my heart was. life threw me a curve ball in my career driven focus, and I was surprised with the news that I was expecting my second child (12 years between my first child). This caused me to take a step back and focus on motherhood.

Loving being a mother, I found that I missed working and to compromise, I took a position in medical IT where I would be able to be more available for my children. It was this chapter in my life that I was introduced to the nonprofit world. This nonprofit focused on children of all ailments and it captivated me. I donated 6% of my salary to this nonprofit and volunteered my time to help where I could. It was then that I was introduced to a little boy who inspired the change of my career path, Blakey.

Blakey was a year and half old little boy battling Leukemia when I was introduced to him. By Feb 2017, I founded the organization Small But Mighty Heroes. By March 2017, Little Blakey passed away at 2 years old. It broke me and the flame inside of me ignited. I knew what I wanted to do; as if it were a calling. That same year I was introduced to 2 additional children battling cancer and out of those 3 children, only one is still with us today.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The journey of SBMH is a continual story of resilience. It’s a scary journey when you step out of Corporate America and try to navigate what you’re passionate about not funded by the riches nor backed behind investors. I stepped into a world that I knew nothing about (nonprofit world), but I knew medical and science. I knew compassion and empathy. I have a passion for my mission and I continue to fight for our cause. From becoming a nonprofit at the end of 2019, we were road blocked by COVID. As we navigated through the epidemic, we persevered and we pushed on. By 2022, we were awarded the Best Nonprofit Business of the Year by the Valrico FishHawk Chamber of Commerce. That same year we opened a cafe headquarters where the community came to offer their support and join our village while consuming tea, coffee, or lemonade which funded the programs that we offered to the children and families battling pediatric cancer.  Here, we hosted events for the children battling and their sibling(s) such as dance out the gitters, game night, Enchanted Christmas, lemonade stands, just to name a few. This cafe was also a location for students in the community to volunteer and obtain their community service hours for college resumes. Unfortunately, the location was not a good fit or suitable for what we needed so we were forced to close our doors. This didn’t stop us, we continued our mission from my in-home office and hosted events in the community to continue the spreading awareness of our mission and to raise much needed funding for the programs that we offer these superhero children and their families.

As our name and mission grows, so does the demand for our support. With this, we are facing a new challenge of funding for the programs and we are working diligently to fulfil the budgets so that we can continue without turning children and families away. WE WILL PERSEVERE.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://smallbutmightyheroes.org
• Instagram: Small But Mighty Heroes
• Facebook: Small But Mighty Heroes
• Linkedin: Small But Mighty Heroes
• Youtube: Small But Mighty Heroes
• Other: TIKTOK- Small But Mighty Heroes