JANE Hatton can be expected to cope well in the Three Peaks Challenge team she joins for charity this month.

Climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Mount Snowdon in 24 hours must be a doddle to someone who has faced as many challenges as 35-year-old Mrs Hatton, of George Street, Kidderminster.

Her first "test" of the mountaineering kind was when, as a schoolteacher, she accompanied children on an adventure course that involved climbing.

"I felt I could not stand by and ask them to do something I would not do," she recalls. Five years ago she joined an evening class for climbers in Stourbridge. She found a head for heights, the strength to hang from ridges by her fingers - and her second husband.

Divorced in 1995 after a six-year marriage, Mrs Hatton met Chris, an engineer and fellow climber there, and they are to be married in Cornwall in the autumn.

But Mrs Hatton, who expects to move to a new home at Hallow, will not be abandoning the work she took on last November as secretary of the Wyre Forest branch of the British Diabetic Association, lately renamed Diabetes UK.

This involves her traking part in a newly launched national challenge to look for the "missing" one million people in this country who have diabetes but do not know it.

Mrs Hatton is a diabetic herself and knows the importance of early diagnosis to prevent associated problems that can lead to blindness or even life-threatening conditions.

The organisation also tries to break down prejudice governing driving regulations and other restrictions on lifestyle.

Her challenge in Wyre Forest is currently to get more young people to go along to branch meetings.

She says teenagers tend to draw back from wanting to acknowledge they have the condition. People in their 40s are often too busy with their lives to join in.

Her plans include helping to promote children's events and youth holidays. "Some young people feel very alone with this condition. They need to share experiences," she said.

She became an active member of the branch two-and-a-half years ago feeling she was now "old enough to make a real contribution".

She also wanted to give something back to an organisation, which through its sponsorship of medical research, had given so much to her.

Mrs Hatton was 14 when first diagnosed by chance. "I never let it stop me doing anything. I carried on roller-skating and going to discos and 10-mile fitness walks. I was determined I did not want sympathy."

Now she is one of the vital team of volunteers who give support and advice to the newly diagnosed.

Mrs Hatton can be contacted on 01562 862646.