Mary and her family, in the midst of another two dozen families, met with President George Bush before he signed two bills and vetoed another connected to stem cell research.

During a 15 second photo op, Mary tried to tell the story of her 3-year-old son. Ryan who suffers from mild cerebral palsy, she told the president, was the first child in the nation to be injected with stem cells from her own umbilical cord blood.

Her son received the infusion and immediately showed significant signs of improvement. Since October, the Batavia mother has tried to spread the story of her son to the masses, and now she had the chance to tell President Bush.

“I said, ‘My son is symptom-free now,’ and he just was floored. He just was speechless,” Mary said. “His mouth went open and he said, ‘What? Really?’”

Bush was quite interested in what Mary had to say, judging by the way he tried to follow her before he was pulled back by his staff, Mary stated.

A year prior to their child