Escorting a group of young people on a trip to the spectacular Rocky Mountains, followed by the thrill of joining Pope John Paul II at the annual World Youth Day services in Denver should have been a relatively stress-free event for Mrs. Lucy Willitts.

She has, after all, experienced the unspeakable squalor of Calcutta when she visited India last year to help Mother Teresa in her work for the sick and homeless.

And earlier this year, she made a potentially dangerous trip to Bosnia to personally distribute supplies and children's medicines to refugees in that war-ravaged land.

But on her return from the media-saturated event in Colorado earlier this month, Mrs. Willitts described her trip, as "a nightmare'' and one of the most frightening experiences of her life.

It was, she says, especially disappointing for the young people in her charge, who had worked hard all year to raise money for the pilgrimage to Colorado.

She and two other adults accompanied five young people to the annual event.

"Of course, it was a moving experience, but physically it was horrendous.

Denver was totally unprepared for the huge crowds that showed up and I think they should be sued.'' As the expected 250,000 young people were joined by half a million more at the Papal Mass on the Sunday, Lucy Willitts looked on in helpless disbelief as the dusty expanse of Cherry Creek State Park was transformed into a place of mayhem, with the National Guard removing on stretchers, thousands of youngsters who had become seriously dehydrated through the intense heat.

"Over 20,000 were dropping down all over the place. It was unbelievable. We had joined up with another group and one of their boys broke his leg as he fell. We heard afterwards that three people died, and three babies were born.

Denver High School was turned into a make-shift hospital.'' Mrs. Willitts says she is surprised that in spite of the massive media coverage on the Pope's visit, the magnitude of the problems and the inept organisation by Denver officials was "glossed over.'' Much of the misery could have been avoided, she says, if the organisers had realised that the numbers had become unmanagable and closed the proceedings down after the Mass. Instead, they elected to go on for another four hours, with delegates from all over the world introducing their countries to the Pope.

The situation was further aggravated by the presence of the security-conscious CIA and the National Guard, who refused to let people move once the Pope had arrived.

Meanwhile, water ran out and emergency supplies of bottled water had to be rushed in from the city.

"Of course, drinking all that water meant that people wanted to use the lavatory, but there were so few provided that there was a queue of at least two hours. People were getting hysterical.'' Tempers were not improved when it was realised that McDonald's (sole caterers for the event) and the media, who both had their own toilet facilities, were only allowing the clergy to use them.

"We really felt that in a situation like this, all are equal! So one of our group, who was feeling pretty desperate, said she was a nun. She was allowed in.'' Eventually, Mrs. Willitts and her group were able to begin the nightmare effort to get out of the park, only to find that they would have to walk five miles to reach their bus.

For Mrs. Willitts, this was "the last straw'' as she was only just recovering from an acute attack of mountain sickness for which she had been given oxygen.

"I didn't think I was going to make it. Can you imagine 750,000 trying to get out of that park all at once? It was a death-trap situation. Then when we finally dragged ourselves onto the bus, we had to go driving round to all these hospitals, picking up kids who had been carted off with dehydration.

They all had to be unhooked from intravenous drips and put on the bus. It was unreal!'' In spite of the physical hardships, Mrs. Willitts says that the overnight vigil, attended by the Pope on the Saturday evening, was something she will always remember.

"Thousands of young people from Alaska to Australia were all chanting `John Paul Two, We Love You'. He was moved to tears at that point, and then he surprised us all when he stood up and said `John Paul Two loves you too!'' The most personally moving moment for Mrs. Willitts was when two young Bosnians stood up and began to talk about the situation in their country and to ask the Pope for special prayers.

"Everyone got very emotional about that. The Pope embraced them and talked quietly to them.'' Mrs. Willitts, who was the prime organiser with the Medjugorje Peace Plan in sending two containers of relief supplies from Bermuda to Bosnia, says that the Bosnians' plea made her wish that the Island could offer more help.

"We see these heartbreaking pictures of horribly injured children on TV. Only a small fraction of them are being accepted by hospitals overseas for treatment. I realise we don't have hi-tec equipment here, but I understand that many children over there are suffering very badly with asthma. Now I do know that Bermuda is very expert at treating asthma and I wish that we could see our way to trying to help with some of those cases. Children are dying because of the reluctance of other countries to step in and do something about it. When I listened to those two young Bosnians it made me feel very sad that the world is really standing by, just watching all this happen.'' Meanwhile, Mrs. Willitts says she hopes organisers of World Youth Day will learn from the "disastrous'' misjudgements at this year's venue.

Will she be tempted to take part again? "Well, it's in the Philippines next year, so I think that's a bit too far away from Bermuda!'' POPEMOBILE -- Pope John Paul II waves to the crowd from within the tinted glass of the Popemobile as he rides through Mile High Stadium in Denver.

CROWDS -- Thousands of people fill Denver's Civic Centre Park to celebrate the opening mass of World Youth Day.