Three-Year-Old Cancer Survivor Gets to be the Flower Girl at Her Bone Marrow Donor’s Wedding (Watch Video)

It was a special moment when three-year-old Skye Savren-McCormick walked down the aisle as a flower girl at Hayden Ryals' wedding. Skye was only a baby when Ryals had donated bone marrow to her. Doctors treating Skye gave given her only a 10 per cent chance to live when a stranger stepped in to save her. The baby was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called juvenile myelomonocytic leukaemia that required blood and platelet transfusions almost daily.

Skye had already spent 10 months in the hospital for treatment and only a bone marrow transplant could save her. In 2015 while in college, Ryals signed up to be a donor but didn't think she would be a match with someone. She told the Dothan Eagle, "It's the easiest thing. It's a cheek swab -- swab your cheek, put it in an envelope and they send it off ... I thought there's like a one in a gazillion chance that I would ever be a match."

And in 2016 she received a call from a coordinator with Be the Match saying she was matched with a little girl diagnosed with leukaemia. Be the Match calls itself "the largest and most diverse marrow registry in the world".

The 26-year-old donor said, "I had been struggling for a while; I had changed my major. I was having trouble finding myself and feeling like I had a purpose. So the more that I talked to this coordinator with Be the Match, I started feeling like, what if this is my purpose?"

According to Cancer Research UK, this is "a very rare type of slowly developing (chronic) blood disorder that occurs in young children". "Leukaemia means a cancer of the blood-forming system. The blood-forming system is the bone marrow – the soft inner part of your bones."

Watch the video here:

Ryals who would often wonder how Skye was doing and once reached out to child's mother, Talia. The donor asked if Skye could be the flower girl at her wedding at the family readily agreed. Everyone in the room was in tears when Skye walked down the aisle with flower petals in a basket at Shiloh Baptist Church in Hartford where Ryals married her husband, Adrian Ryals.

While Skye is too young to realise her connection with Ryals, Talia says the two families will stay connected. Stressing the importance of donation she now encourages people to join a registry. Ryals said, "In my eyes, she's the one that saved me."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 03, 2018 05:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).