Teresa Walker Mason was enough to fuel any parent’s pride. Her feats are nothing compared to the greatest effort she made – her fight against OPCA.

Mason is a perpetual achiever. She earned a bachelor’s degree at North Carolina Central University and was crowned Miss NCCU. Mason also graduated magna laude from NCCU School of Law where she was president of student bar association. She wasn’t done there. She is an active member of North Carolina State Bar, has been a mediator for Georgia since 1995, and is now the Ethics Program office director for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga.

But her priorities would change. She was now focusing on saving her own life and advancing her career. Mason was diagnosed in 2007 with Olivopontocerebellar atrophy (OPCA), also known as Ataxia. OPCA is characterized as progressive neurological degeneration or shrinking of cerebellum. This condition can cause total immobilization and even death.

There is no treatment for OPCA. Mason’s search to save her life brought her to Qingdao City China. There, stem cells are not obtained from embryos but from umbilical chord blood. This treatment is illegal under the U.S. FDA regulations. Many people like Mason have to seek treatment elsewhere.

“Americans need to know that they can receive immediate, life-changing treatments for congestive heart failure, sickle-cell anemia, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and many other diseases – as long as they search outside of the U.S.,”Don Margolis, the founder and chairman of The Repair Stem Cell Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating Americans about stem cells, said: “The research has been done – Americans simply need to access the same technologies that already save lives across the globe.”

Mason intends to have Donnie, Mason’s husband, document her treatments and post them on YouTube. “I want to be a part of the resolution for myself, my family and future generations to come,”Mason.

To find out more about how repair stem cells are aiding in the treatment of suffering people, visit http://RepairStemCells.org for a complete list of the 100-plus diseases now being treated by the world’s leading stem cell doctors and scientists.