This is a letter that Scott Downing’s family recently received.
To my donor’s family,
With my heartfelt sympathy for your loss.
Know that your selfless act of donation has saved my life. I am blessed.
I thought this letter would be easy to write, but is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done.
My name is Doug.
I’m 64 years old and planned to enjoy retirement from working 40+ years in the sheet metal industry. Diagnosed w/ILD [Interstitial Lung Disease] 2 years ago and eligible for transplant in 12/2023. Honored to receive your loved one’s lungs on Feb. 12, 2024. Hit a few bumps while recovering but made it home by June.
Enjoying life with my wife, children, grandchildren, friends and of course my dog!
There is an angel holding us all!
I am thankful to you and your loved one with every breath I take.
Happy to be out shoveling snow, and hope to be ice skating with the grandkids soon.
Doug
“Peace”
Scott Downing was only 50 when he died on February 9, 2024, following complications from diabetes. Downing’s family was very proud that he was an organ donor. At the time of his Celebration of Life on February 25, 2024, he had already saved four people.
Downing was a former collegiate athlete, teacher, and boys soccer coach for more than 20 years. He led the Tippecanoe boys soccer team to its first-ever state championship in 2019. Downing grew up in Tipp City and graduated from Tippecanoe High School in 1992. He was honored with numerous soccer awards in high school, including Ohio Division II Player of the Year in 1991, and was named 2nd Team All-American. He made two final four appearances before going on to play soccer at the University of Dayton, where he started all four years.
After college, Downing had a three-year teaching stint in Piqua before making it back to his beloved Tipp City for the 2000-2001 school year. There, he taught Government and coached soccer. He took over as the boy’s head soccer coach in 2005. He served as the Varsity Head Coach at Tippecanoe High School for 20 years with an overall record of 269-51-31 with one State Championship in 2019 and a Runner-Up in 2020.
His family and closest friends say it wasn’t his achievements or accolades that would define his legacy; they say it was the relationships he cultivated along the way. Now, through his organ donations, he is allowing others to live.