Miss Andrea Mills of Pembroke was 17 when she first noticed the now-familiar butterfly-shaped rash on her face.

At the time, she naturally thought the redness about her nose and cheeks was a typical teenage outbreak, but she soon discovered otherwise.

"I had a series of tests and was eventually diagnosed with lupus,'' Miss Mills, now 38, said of the chronic inflammatory auto-immune disease that she has been living with for the past 20 years. "(The rash) was one of my first symptoms.'' Since Miss Mills' diagnosis -- reached in those days of relative unfamiliarity with the disease over a period of several weeks -- the mother of one and treasurer of the Lupus Association of Bermuda has devoted a significant chunk of her life to helping fellow sufferers of the disease, which, she insisted, does not have to prevent a patient from leading a "normal'' life.

"I was in remission for a long time,'' Miss Mills told The Royal Gazette in the final days of the Lupus Awareness campaign that her association has been waging this month, "before I developed any further symptoms, or had my first lupus `crisis' if you will.

"Because I have poor circulation,'' she continued, "I have to wear a special surgical sock and occasionally I develop ulcers on my legs. Other than that, I have had a very normal life. It often depends on the severity of your condition.'' The symptoms of lupus, which causes the body to reject its own cells and has no known cause or cure, will typically range in severity from mild to occasionally life-threatening, from lesions on the skin and an inflammation of the joints to very serious damage to the body's vital organs, namely the brain, heart, kidneys and lungs.

In a vast majority of cases, however, the course of the disease will be characterised by alternating periods of remission and flare-ups -- the latter, more common in some than others, being best prevented by learning to eliminate stress and anxiety and by avoiding exposure to the sun and fluorescent light.

Mrs. Margaret Wade, a mother of three from Somerset and a member of the Lupus Association, knows all too well the importance of staying out of the sun, since the 28-year-old has the most visible incarnation of the three different kinds of lupus: cutaneous or discoid lupus, a variety of the disease that's confined to the skin and is characterised by disc-like lesions on the face, neck, scalp and elsewhere.

Miss Mills, who credits her religious faith with the fact that she has coped as well as she has with the disease, suffers from the most common type of lupus: systemic lupus erythematosus, or SLE, a strain which causes the inflammation of joints and vital organs.

Although both discoid lupus and SLE are treatable with drugs, there is a third type of lupus that is actually triggered by certain prescribed medications.

Known as drug-induced lupus, its symptoms disappear when the drugs are discontinued.

"I believe that stress contributes to any disease, and that was certainly the case with me,'' said Mrs. Wade.

"When I was first diagnosed, I was frightened and depressed. I was also very confused, and so was my doctor, because he hadn't been exposed to too many patients with the disease.'' Eventually, Mrs. Wade said, she overcame her depression through the support of her family and other members of the Association, which she credits with making her realise "that I wasn't alone, that I didn't even have it as bad as some others. Some others have it really bad. My internal organs aren't affected.'' "What is so different about lupus,'' continued the group's Miss Mills, "is that it can mimic so many other diseases, and is difficult to diagnose.

"Often physicians will think you have arthritis or something else entirely.

In some cases, it can be three months or more before it is diagnosed.'' Over the course of Lupus Awareness Month, the local Lupus Association, which is affiliated with the Lupus Foundation of America and consists of some 30 members, has focussed on the identification of anyone who might need its services by compiling a formal mailing list.

"We'd like everyone to know,'' Miss Mills said, "that there is a support group and that support is available.'' The Lupus Foundation of Bermuda, which has a referral system set up with King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, can be reached by phoning the hospital at 236-2345.

LIVING WITH LUPUS -- Mrs. Margaret Wade (left) and Miss Andrea Mills of the Lupus Association of Bermuda.