a leading US transplant surgeon claimed yesterday.

Dr. David Sutherland of the Diabetes Institute for Immunology and Transplantation at Minnesota University estimated that roughly 130 Bermudians will contract the debilitating and sometimes deadly disease every year, binding sufferers to a lifetime of insulin injections and possible blindness, kidney failure, gangrene and heart disease.

Numbers are highest in the "type two'' category where high blood pressure and obesity can lead to diabetes. "Type one'' sufferers typically contract diabetes in childhood.

But news that there could soon be a cure for diabetes should be music to the ears of Bermuda's 100 "type one'' sufferers.

Recent strides in transplant surgery and diabetes research could mean that a cure for type one diabetics will be found in the next century.

That was the upbeat message Dr. Sutherland is spreading as head of University of Minnesota's transplantation programme when he speaks to doctors and diabetes sufferers on whirlwind two-day trip to the Island this week.

But one person delighted with the recent strides in transplant surgery is Bermuda's first pancreas transplant patient, Bermudian Miss Deborah Butterfield who claims she would be in a wheelchair and possible blind today had she not undergone a kidney and pancreas transplant last year.

Ms Butterfield, a 34-year-old financial brokerage consultant in New York contracted diabetes when she was 11. But yesterday she claimed her life has been transformed by a kidney and pancreas transplant -- a cure for diabetes which is little known in Bermuda but which is fast catching on in North America.

"I feel normal for the first time in my life. Now I can eat whatever I want.

My life story is now night and day,'' she said. "Without a new kidney I would be in dialysis. Without a new pancreas I would not be walking today.'' By the time Ms Butterfield underwent surgery, she had been diagnosed with kidney disease, her eyes were failing and she had lost feeling in her legs. A week later, she was insulin-free and eating a normal diet for the first time in 23 years.

And her prospects for remaining diabetes-free are high. Dr. Sutherland claims his early transplant patients are still free of diabetes 16 years after surgery.

While pancreas and kidney transplants are not new (they were first pioneered in the 1960s) success rates have since quadrupled from 20 percent in the late 1970s to 80 percent today.

But cadaver organs are limited and grafts, as in Ms Butterfield's case, do not always take first time.

Now researchers are aiming to simplify the major surgery by injecting islets -- tiny structures within the pancreas made up of insulin-producing cells -- directly into the liver, bypassing the need for surgery. The patient's own islets are used and if not, those of a donor.

The Institute is also seeking to cure diabetes in people known to be susceptible to the disease with doses of insulin, before symptoms appear.

"Eventually we will be able to prevent diabetes,'' Dr. Sutherland said. Lack of funding, he said, was the only major obstacle to finding a quick cure.

Two people per thousand population developed diabetes, which meant that Bermuda could expect roughly 130 new cases a year.

It was not known why Bermudians are more prone to the disease but research was currently underway to find out, he said.

An extensive epidemiology study polling more than 3,000 conducted by the Diabetes Association, the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, the Department of Health, the Fitness Centre and the Heart Foundation begins this month to assess the incidence of diabetes in Bermuda and the risk factor of developing heart disease, which is also a risk factor for diabetes.

A random sample of the population will be asked to take part in the three to six-month study by participating in interviews and undergoing blood tests.

Yesterday, KEMH Diabetes Centre co-ordinator Mrs. Deborah Jones admitted Bermudians were still wary of transplants because they were unaware of up-to-date success rates.

Transplants are good news too for the insurance companies, she said. While a kidney and pancreas transplant can cost $60,000, dialysis for diabetics with kidney failure costs $78,000 a year.

"Over a 15-year period, that adds up,'' she said.

DIABETES-FREE -- Diabetes expert and transplant surgeon Dr. David Sutherland from the University of Minnesota's Diabetes Institute for Immunology and Transplantation is bringing good news to diabetes sufferers on a whirlwind trip to Bermuda this week. Also pictured, Ms Deborah Butterfield who suffered from diabetes for 23 years before she underwent a kidney and pancreas transplant at the Institute.

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