Cancer Survivor, 3, Serves As Flower Girl At Donor's Wedding

Defying the odds and beating cancer after being given just a 10 percent chance of survival, a 3-year-old girl traveled across the country to serve as the flower girl for her bone marrow donor's wedding. As the little girl, Skye Savren-McCormick, walked down the aisle in a white lace dress and comfy blue sneakers, there wasn't a dry eye in the room.

The bride and donor, 25-year-old Hayden Hatfield-Ryals, sent Skye a wedding invite along with a birthday gift in March. Skye, who lives in Ventura, California, was on oxygen at the time and her parents, Todd and Talia Savren-McCormick, thought it would not be possible for her to travel.

Skye was first diagnosed with cancer right before her first birthday in March 2016. While she was being treated, she developed many other illnesses, infections, and viruses and was then diagnosed with a secondary cancer for which doctors gave her just a 10 percent chance of survival. Her mother said she defied all the odds when she beat it.

According to The Dothan Eagle, Hatfield-Ryals signed up with "Be The Match" to be a donor while she was in college at Auburn University. A year after signing up, she received a call that she was a match for Skye who had been diagnosed with a rare type of leukemia, according to the Eagle.

After receiving the first bone marrow transplant in July 2016, Skye had to be infused with more of the donated cells and while her condition improved, by Thanksgiving that year she had developed lymphoma, the Eagle reported. That's when she was given a 10 percent chance of survival. After going through four rounds of chemotherapy and a second transplant from a different donor in April 2017, Skye went home in May 2017.

April 2018 marked one year for Skye post-transplant.

Talia Savren-McCormick told Patch in an email interview that they first received a letter from Hatfield-Ryals a few weeks after Skye's first transplant. Their contact information wouldn't be released to each other until about a year later.

"It was a breath of fresh air and a really nice encouragement," Savren-McCormick said, adding that she would read it to every person in the room and cry at the exact same part. She said she knew the donor was someone very special who would be a part of their lives.

She wrote back to the donor and they then communicated with each other about a year later; after the contact information was released.

"We emailed back-and-forth a few times and then our family called Hayden around Thanksgiving of 2017," Savren-McCormick said. "We spoke on the phone for a while and then would continue to text one another back-and-forth."

Savren-McCormick said she was touched that Skye had been included in the June wedding and when doctors gave them the all-clear, they made plans to travel to Alabama.

"As soon as Hayden saw us she immediately went to Skye and got down her knees and opened her arms wide for an embrace that Skye returned happily," Savren-McCormick said.

The wedding photographers, Mark and Jeannie Broadway, said they were in high anticipation ahead of Skye's arrival.

"She was absolutely precious and beautiful," Jeannie Broadway told Patch via email. "They were smitten with each other."

Jeannie Broadway said there wasn't a dry eye in the room as Skye walked down the aisle. And Mark Broadway was able to capture this adorable photo of Skye as she turned around while walking down the aisle.

Savren-McCormick said their hope is for Skye to continue to be a happy and healthy little girl. She said that she and her husband also look forward to Hayden growing as an adult and starting a family of her own.

"We know that we will be involved in each others lives forever and that is something that we cherish very much," Savren-McCormick said. "We are very excited to see Skye grow up with Hayden in her life and we look forward to many more visits with Hayden and her family in the future."

All photos via Mark Broadway Photography, used with permission