A three-year-old cancer survivor who is currently in remission was made a flower girl at the wedding of the woman who saved her life.
When she hadn’t yet turned one year old, Skye Savren-McCormick was diagnosed with juvenile myelomonocytic leukaemia, a rare form of cancer that involved having to have blood and platelet transfusions on an almost daily basis.
Having been given a 10 per cent chance of survival by doctors, Skye was in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant, which is where Hayden Ryals came in.
When she was 26 years old, Ryals had registered as a bone marrow donor while at college.
A year later in 2016, she discovered that she was a perfect match for the toddler and donated bone marrow anonymously.
Following the surgery, Skye’s family was devastated to be told that she had been diagnosed with a second form of cancer, post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, a lymphoma than can develop after an individual has had a transplant.
However, she’s now in remission following treatment, which included chemotherapy and further bone marrow transplants.
Ryals was able to anonymously make contact with Skye’s family following the toddler’s first bone marrow transplant through Be the Match, the organisation through which Ryals made her donation.
Ryals and the Savren-McCormick family soon struck up a close correspondence, despite Skye living in California and Ryals being based in Alabama.
On Skye’s birthday, she received an invitation from Ryals to act as a flower girl at her wedding to her fiancé Adrian Ryals.
The pair met for the first time at the wedding rehearsal, with their special connection apparent from the get-go.
“We were in the front, looking around, and she [Ryals] came in and immediately came over to Skye and dropped to her knees,” her mother, Talia Savren-McCormick, told CNN.
“It was so sweet,” she said. “It was like they were in love.”
Ryals and the Savren-McCormick family have no doubt that the bride’s bond with Skye will continue far into the future.
“I look forward to the years to come with Skye growing up and continuing this relationship with Hayden, and watching Hayden grow up, too,” Savren-McCormick said.
“Anyone could be somebody who saves a life,” she continued. “You don’t have to be a superhero.”
“She’s everything to me,” Ryals said about the three-year-old. “And this whole journey, I’ve never once seen it as me helping her, because I was honoured to do it, and it was a privilege for me to get to do it."
