Bone Marrow Donor Flower Girl: Skye's Wedding Walk

A 3-year-old cancer survivor walked down the aisle as flower girl for her bone marrow donor, a woman she had never met before the wedding rehearsal.

Skye Savren-McCormick carried a basket of petals at the June 9, 2018 wedding of Hayden Hatfield Ryals, whose marrow was used in the first transplant that helped Skye fight a rare leukemia.

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

“In my eyes, she’s the one that saved me,” Ryals said of Skye.

How a stranger’s marrow reached Skye

Skye was diagnosed with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia shortly before her first birthday. Doctors gave her a 10% chance to live, CNN reported.

She had blood and platelet transfusions almost daily and spent 10 months in the hospital because of complications. She urgently needed a bone marrow transplant, and her mother, Talia Savren-McCormick, said a perfect match was found.

That match was Ryals, who had registered as a donor while she was in college. She later learned she was a match for Skye.

“That changed everything. It became my number-one priority from that point on,” Ryals said.

The donation was anonymous, and the two did not meet when the procedure happened.

Skye then developed post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder. She went through chemotherapy and additional bone marrow transplants and survived.

Talia said of the registry: “Anyone could be somebody who saves a life. You don’t have to be a superhero.”

From anonymous letters to the aisle

Ryals and Skye’s family first traded anonymous letters through Be the Match. Then both sides asked the organization to connect them.

Skye’s family lived in California and Ryals lived in Alabama. Their bond grew through email, a phone call and texting.

Ryals then sent Skye a birthday gift with an invitation to be her flower girl.

Skye was on oxygen when it arrived. Once she came off it, her doctors said attending the wedding was fine.

Skye and Ryals met in person for the first time at the wedding rehearsal. Skye gave Ryals a big hug, and the two spent the evening sitting together, Talia said.

Talia said they seemed “like they were in love.”

Skye had practiced walking with her basket at home. At the ceremony, she dropped a fistful of petals before she took her first step down the aisle.