Thanks to the Committee of 25 for Handicapped Children, a group of children who suffer from Type I diabetes will, once again, be going off to a special summer camp this year.

Situated in beautiful countryside just outside Boston, the Joslyn Diabetes Centre helps children to adjust and deal with the day to day difficulties of dealing with this very serious disease.

"We are so very grateful to the Committee for all the help they give us,'' says coordinator of the Diabetes Centre, Debbie Jones. "Besides helping children with the expenses of going away for two or three weeks, they also assist with the cost of medication, which is considerable. The test strips alone, have to be taken six or seven times a day and each one costs about 80 cents, so we are very thankful for their fantastic help in making a difficult situation so much easier for these children.'' Run by counsellors, nurses and dietitians who themselves are all insulin-dependent, they help the children to accept diabetes by making various adjustments to their lives. "They have to learn how to monitor their insulin levels and to administer the insulin. But this is done in a fun environment where all the children are in a similar position, so once they have done that, they have a wonderful time, with horse-riding, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, going off on overnight trips and doing lots of wonderful things.'' The summer camps are very important for the children, she adds, with far fewer children suffering physical and psychological problems as a result of the disease.

Learning to live with diabetes "Type I diabetes has been around since the beginning of time and was originally thought to be a disease of the kidneys (it is actually a disease of the pancreas). It used to be known as the `melting away of the flesh disease' and until 192l, when insulin was discovered, was fatal. Parents were told to take their children home and make them comfortable because death was imminent.

Thankfully, with effective medication, that is no longer the case.'' Noting that with medication, insulin-dependent people can lead normal lives -- even flying planes, doing triathlons, climbing Everest or sailing round the world -- Mrs. Jones says the very nature of their disease forces self-discipline from a very early age. "The silver lining is that because of that, many of them are high achievers who go on to have extremely successful lives.'' Mrs. Jones, who reveals that probably less than 100 people suffer with the Type I form of the disease in Bermuda, says that last year was exceptional in that six new cases were diagnosed in children, as opposed to the normal figure of one in about every 18 months.

She is extremely concerned that there seems to be a serious misunderstanding by the general public on the nature of the Type I strain of diabetes, which is rare, compared with Type II. "Children who have Type I have to take insulin every day for the rest of their lives, and if they don't take it, they could die. We don't know why it develops in some children. Insulin is an artificially made hormone that replaces hormones, which are normally replaced naturally in the pancreas.'' On a recent visit to a school, Mrs. Jones was horrified to hear a teacher comment that she didn't know why so much "bother'' was made over children with diabetes. "She said it was something they had brought on themselves. Now this is not only upsetting -- it is also totally inaccurate.'' She points out that it is only the far more common form of diabetes, Type II, which develops later on in life (and usually non-insulin dependent), that is connected to a person's lifestyle, such as over-indulgence in the wrong kinds of food, alcohol and lack of exercise. "It is extremely important, for the sake of these children, that the public never confuses the two. Children with Type I need and deserve the very best in medical attention and to be helped to lead normal lives.''