At the age of 19, Tim is now in his second year of third-level education. As it does for his peers, college means a new building, new friends, new staff. For Tim, though, it is the third time he has had to explain his haemophilia to a new set of people.

Since Tim was diagnosed with haemophilia at the age of two, his parents were advised to tell the people with whom he had most contact that he had the condition.

"If he fell or if he got a bump at least if somebody was aware what was wrong. . . If there was a babysitter minding him she was told that he had haemophilia, it was nothing to worry about if he fell or if something happened to him, just to contact us straight away. We always left a contact number, that was basically the way we worked it," explains Doreen, Tim's mother.

Even before he went to school, Tim himself would know when he had a "bleed". "He knew his own body, he knew when he needed `Factor' (the product used to control haemophilia). He'd tell you. He knew those things himself. All he wanted was to be treated the same way as every other child." There are 12 Factors, explains Doreen, and what Factor a haemophiliac takes depends on what Factor they are short of in their own blood clotting. Tim, she says, is classed as a severe haemophiliac.

When he went to school, the teachers and principal were told about his condition and contact details were given. They had little to worry about as, says Doreen, "he wasn't a child that was jumping and leaping, he was content to watch television. He liked television, so it meant that he wasn't climbing trees and climbing here, there and everywhere." Everyone played football at his school, but Tim couldn't play it. Still, he wasn't left out entirely and was brought along to all the matches.

Secondary school was a different ball game, says Doreen. "When you mention haemophilia, teachers are absolutely terrified. They have this idea that he is going to shoot blood out of him.

"The thing was Tim knew his limits. He knew what he could do, what he couldn't do, what would cause him more bleeds, what wouldn't." However, according to Doreen, the comfortable lifestyle which allowed where Tim to do what he wanted was over.

"At 13 or 14, you definitely don't want to be singled out," says Doreen, but, on occasion, Tim was. Doreen recalls a time where her son was not allowed to carry a stack of chairs across a room, whereas a boy half his size was expected to.

Tim is now in college and lives away from home. He learned about his medication through all his trips to the hospital and that gives him an awful lot of independence. He can now administer his own drugs.

Although Tim has worked out for himself what can cause a bleed, the bleeds can also be spontaneous. The majority of the painful ones, says Doreen, are into the joints, the muscle or if the bleed pressed on a nerve. Worry or stress could cause it too. Although Doreen knows he is well capable of looking after himself, she does worry about the pressure he is under in college - if it could it trigger something serious like a brain haemorrhage.

"You take every day as it comes and every hour as it comes. That's basically all you can do with it. He could be perfect now and he could be in hospital. Tim is a breath of fresh air, in that he lives today and goes out and does what he enjoys."

The names in this article have been changed.