3-Year-Old Is Flower Girl at Her Bone Marrow Donor's Wedding

In 2016, Hayden Ryals donated bone marrow to Skye Savren-McCormick, a now 3-year-old girl who had been diagnosed with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia. Skye lived, and in June, she walked down the aisle at Ryals' wedding as her flower girl.

Ryals told the Washington Post that she registered as a bone marrow donor in 2015 when she was feeling anxious at Auburn University, changing her major and deciding what she wanted to do with her life.

One year later, she got a call letting her know that a little girl with leukemia needed her donation.

"I had started to question whether I had a purpose here," the newlywed said. "That phone call gave me a purpose."

After Skye received Ryals' bone marrow in 2016, she received a second donation from Ryals and was later diagnosed with a secondary cancer that required her to undergo chemotherapy. That wiped out her bone marrow, and she needed another transplant from a different donor. This time, doctors used peripheral blood stem cells.

The little girl's father, Todd Savren-McCormick, noted, "If Hayden hadn't donated her bone marrow, our daughter would not have made it [to] her other donation. She got us to a place where we could survive this."

Her mother, Talia Savren-McCormick, told Today Parents, "She defied all odds and survived. Today she is doing very well — there have been ups and downs with infections and hospitalizations, but overall she's doing great."

In response to her effect on Skye's life, Ryals explained, "It has always been the other way around. She helped me. She saved me. … She's the real hero."

After connecting one year after the transplant, Ryals stayed in touch with Skye's family, sending the toddler gifts as well as an invitation to her wedding.

"I decided to send Skye a birthday present and I also enclosed one of our wedding invitations," she told Today. "I mentioned I wanted them to have an invitation even if they couldn't come because I wanted them to know how special they were to me. I also mentioned it would be absolutely amazing if Skye could be my flower girl."

Skye's parents didn't think their daughter would be healthy enough to make the ceremony, but as the day approached, the 3-year-old's condition improved and her doctor cleared her to attend.

The two met for the first time the day before the wedding, with Ryals telling the Post the moment was "like a fairy tale."

The next day, Skye walked down the aisle carrying a bouquet adorned with a gift for Ryals from the toddler and her parents — a locket with Skye's photo on one side that read, "This heart beats with yours."

"She saved my life and will always be my hero," Ryals told Today of Skye, whom she hopes to visit soon. "She has been through a multitude of things early in her life that most people will only ever hear or pray about. She has conquered so much and has the best attitude and is a gem to be around. She has given me a new perspective on the world...she is everything to me."

Photo Credit: Facebook / Hayden Ryals