Getting married and united with the one you love is like creating a brand new life.
In celebration of life, Hayden Ryals thought it would be fitting to invite a life she saved to her wedding.
Skye Savren-McCormick, who was saved by Ryals’ bone marrow donation, didn’t just attend the wedding.
She served as the flower girl as well. But Ryals insists that her bone marrow donation to Skye saved her life as well.
Ryals said she had suffered from an anxiety disorder that caused depression and made her question life.
She was walking through her college campus when she came across information for the “Be the Match” bone marrow donor registry.
Ryals underwent a cheek swab and signed up for the registry.
“It gave me joy to know I could be helping someone,” Ryals told TODAY.
She got a call a year later saying that she was the perfect match for a 1-year-old girl with leukemia.
Ryals said she immediately agreed to provide a bone marrow donation for the little girl.
“This was it. This was why I was created,” said Ryals. “This child needed me — I was determined to do whatever it took to give her and her family a fighting chance.”
A bone marrow transplant was Skye’s only survival option and there was a 50 percent chance that it would work.
Ryals ended up providing two separate donations for the child who she never met and lived 2,000 miles away.
Skye was then diagnosed with a secondary cancer that required chemotherapy and a third bone marrow transplant from another donor.
“She defied all odds and survived,” Skye’s mom Savren-McCormick said. “Today she is doing very well — there have been ups and downs with infections and hospitalizations, but overall she’s doing great.”
Donors and recipients are allowed to learn each other’s identity a year after the transplant with both of their consent.
Ryals was soon contacted by Skye’s mom.
“She told me who she was and said I helped save her daughter’s life,” said Ryals. “She told me their names and that they lived in California. She said they had waited so long to talk to me, which made my heart stop.”
Ryals sent Skye a birthday present and invited her family to her wedding, mentioning that she would love Skye to be her flower girl.
“We thought it would be nice, but not realistic,” said Savern-McCormick. “Then Skye got off oxygen and her doctor gave her clearance to go — we texted Hayden immediately and started planning.”
Ryals says her first meeting with Sky was extremely emotional.
“I walked up and just dropped to my knees and smiled,” Ryals told ABC News. “I feel so connected to them. They’re like family now.”
Ryals was overjoyed to meet the little girl who gave her a purpose and saved her life.
“She saved my life and will always be my hero,” said Ryals. “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.”
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