GIRL, 3, WAS FLOWER GIRL FOR THE DONOR WHO SAVED HER LIFE

A 3-year-old cancer survivor named Skye Savren-McCormick walked down the aisle as the flower girl for the woman whose bone marrow helped save her life. The bride, Hayden Hatfield Ryals, was her bone marrow donor, and the two had never met in person until the night of the wedding rehearsal.

The wedding took place on June 9, 2018, according to the Ventura County Star. Skye had practiced walking with her little basket in the living room at home. On the big day, she still grabbed a fistful of petals and dropped them on the ground before taking her first step.

The guests could barely hold it together. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the room,” wedding photographer Jeannie Broadway told CNN. “You could even hear sobs from people.”

Not long before, Skye’s doctors had given her a 10% chance to live.

Letters, texts and a birthday invitation

Skye was diagnosed with a rare cancer called juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia when she was just under a year old. She had blood and platelet transfusions almost daily and spent 10 months in the hospital because of complications. She needed a bone marrow transplant, and fast.

A perfect match turned up, her mother, Talia Savren-McCormick, told CNN. It was Ryals, now 26, who had signed up as a donor in college. She had just changed her major and felt lost, but she had always believed giving blood and platelets mattered, so she registered when she learned she could donate marrow.

A year later, she found out she was a match for Skye. “That changed everything,” Ryals said. “It became my number-one priority from that point on.”

The donation, in 2016, was anonymous, so the two did not meet. Then came more bad news. Skye developed a second cancer, post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, which CNN said fewer than 1% of transplant recipients get as a result of their transplant. After chemotherapy and more bone marrow transplants, she pulled through.

“She’s a fighter, and she is full of spunk, and she just has the best attitude, and I think everybody could learn something from this 3-year old,” Ryals said.

Shortly after the first transplant, Ryals sent the family an anonymous letter through Be the Match, the nonprofit she donated through. It said she was thinking of them and that being called to donate had given her a sense of purpose. Talia wrote back, also anonymously.

Eventually both sides asked Be the Match to put them in touch. The Savren-McCormicks lived in California and Ryals lived in Alabama, but a bond formed quickly, first over email, then a phone call, then texting.

For Skye’s birthday, Ryals sent a present with an invitation to be her flower girl. “We were really taken aback by how sweet it was,” Talia said.

The family figured there was no way to go, since Skye was on oxygen at the time. Once she was off it, her doctors said the trip was fine.

At the rehearsal, Ryals walked in and went straight to Skye. “We were in the front, looking around, and she [Ryals] came in and immediately came over to Skye and dropped to her knees,” Talia said. “Skye gave her a big hug. The whole night they were sitting together.”

“It was so sweet,” Talia added. “It was like they were in love.”

Skye was too young to know Ryals had helped save her life, but she knew Ryals was somebody special. Ryals said she never saw it as helping Skye. “She’s everything to me,” she said. “In my eyes, she’s the one that saved me.”

Talia urged people to join the registry. “Anyone could be somebody who saves a life,” she said. “You don’t have to be a superhero.”

The story did not stop at the wedding. ABC News reported on June 24, 2019, that Skye had met a second donor, Ricky Currier, whose marrow was used in her final transplant in April 2017. By then, Skye was two years cancer-free.