Kids get diseases like lupus, too. As researchers hunt better treatments, this camp brings joy

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Dylan Aristy Mota, 12, of New York City, who has lupus, plays a game of Gaga Ball with fellow campers at the Frost Valley YMCA sleepaway camp in Claryville, N.Y., Wednesday, July 30, 2025. The camp partnered with Children's Hospital at Montefiore so kids with autoimmune diseases could attend for the first time. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

A doctor advising ... sleepaway camp? That’s how a 12-year-old diagnosed with lupus found himself laughing on a high-ropes course as fellow campers hoisted him into the air.

“It’s really fun,” said Dylan Aristy Mota, thrilled that he got a chance at the rite of childhood — thanks to doctors reassuring his mom that they'd be at this upstate New York camp , too. Dylan felt good knowing if “a