Sound plays a big part in near-blind Ian Wood's life. Now it's his business.

Ian, 21, of Acomb, who suffers from optic atrophy, has just formed Sonik Disco, his own DJ outfit with the help of a £3,000 grant from the Prince's Trust.

And thanks to a growing play list of CDs and taxi trips to gigs he is going great guns. Apart from the music, the "Sir Jimmy look" was his contribution to a fancy dress party at the Clarence Garden Hotel, York.

His home in Braeside Gardens is full of enthusiastic hounds, two of them guide dogs because both his parents, Tony and Doris Wood are blind. He also has three sisters, one of whom is visually impaired.

"I use a white stick and have some vision but have difficulty with distance and detail," he says. "I am printing out my CD titles in huge letters so I can select them more easily."

Ian's interest in DJ-ing began at the National Institution for the Blind's Loughborough College's radio station; when he left three years ago, be began organising request shows on York Hospital Radio.

"But since I began working as an evening receptionist at York College that has proved difficult. Now I can operate my new business on weekends. I target the 18 to 21 age group with music from the modern era of pop but my collection of nearly 1,000 CDs can also cater for people who love the 1950s era."

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