It is always a devastating news when people hear about a story of someone struggling with a terminal illness or a having to deal with a disease. However, it just seems to be ten times worse the pain when people find out it is actually a child who is suffering from it.
They say that it is more heartbreaking when they find out that there is an innocent child who is actually going through that much pain at such a young age. There are so many children in the United States alone, who had been diagnosed with a different type of cancer and most of them are just so young that it seems like they don’t deserve to be in that position at all.
Just like this 3-year-old girl, who has been battling with leukemia ever since she was a baby. Her story is truly heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time, especially after she was given a chance to become a flower girl to the wedding of her person who donated a bone marrow for her.
3-year-old girl served as a flower girl to her bone marrow donor’s wedding
Flower Girl For Donor
Cute children during weddings would definitely melt the hearts of everyone, but at this particular wedding, everyone’s hearts didn’t just melt, but all of their eyes also went all teary. Last month, a woman named Hayden Hatfield Ryals for married, and one of her flower girls was 3-year-old Skye Savern-McCormick.
Skye apparently practiced for days how to walk down the aisle with a little basket on her arm all over their house before the wedding. She did manage to do a great job of grabbing a handful of petals and pouring them on the aisle. However, her cuteness isn’t the only reason why the guests at the wedding could barely hold it together.
It is because the young girl has been suffering from leukemia. When Skye was only a baby, she was given about 10 percent chances of surviving by her doctors, at such a young age, she needed a bone marrow transplant to live.
This is where Hayden came in and donated one for her. Skye is currently in remission and according to the official photographer of the wedding, Jeannie Broadway, there wasn’t anyone in the room who wasn’t crying, some of them are even sobbing.
Hayden and Skye’s first meeting after donating a bone marrow to her
It turns out that the young flower girl has been fighting leukemia her entire life. She was diagnosed with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia when she was just under a year old and she has spent more almost a year in the hospital to get treated.
However, her treatment cause complications that they needed a bone marrow transplant done to her right away. According to her mother Talia Savern-McCormick, they found a match right away which she considers as a miracle. Hayden actually signed up for it while in college.
Hayden explained how she has always wanted to donate blood and platelets but when she found out that she can actually donate bone marrow, she registered right away. It wasn’t a year later when she found out that she is actually a match with a young girl named Skye, and this change her life so much. Hayden explained how it immediately became a priority for her, it was an anonymous donation so they didn’t exactly meet.
The Anonymous Connection
It was in 2016 when Skye received her transplant, but unfortunately for her family, the young girl developed another form of cancer which broke everyone’s hearts, but they remained hopeful.
Only one percent of bone marrow recipients actually get this kind of result and unfortunately, Skye turned out to be among them. Her chances of survival went downhill once again so she needed to go through tons of chemotherapy and more bone marrow transplant.
This is definitely a lot knowing that she is that young and has already gone through so many procedures. Hayden even admired how much of a fighter she is at such a very young age, the donor even said that everyone can actually learn from Skye’s positive attitude.
Adrian and Hayden Ryals with 3-year-old Skye
It was through Be The Match, which is a nonprofit organization where they finally met because they have been exchanging anonymous emails after Hayden reached out to the family. This is where she donated her bone marrow that matched Skye’s. This then led to Hayden inviting Skye to her wedding not just a guest, but as her flower girl. This is the first time that the two had met and everyone’s hearts just filled with joy and love seeing Skye recovering and being happy.
