JANUARY 5, 1995, is a date which Trevor Chaytor will never forget - despite the fact the 38-year-old does not remember what exactly happened that night.

One minute he was driving home from a tiring day at work as a bus driver, and the next he woke up in hospital.

Trevor had been in a head-on collision with another car and was lying in a hospital bed suffering from a wide range of injuries, including a dislocated right hip, and fractured bones, including his pelvis.

It was the accident which prompted Trevor to change his life.

He said: "I had always wanted to go to university. Even eight years ago, I was talking to a friend who said I should go to university or college, but I didn't see it as a viable option.

"It took another two years, until the accident, to change things. I often refer to my bus driving as seven years of hell, but I just didn't see college as an option."

Trevor, of Shotton, County Durham, enrolled at Teesside University, initially to do a degree course in photography, but he has also successfully completed an MA in multi-media.

He also gained distinctions from the Royal Photographic Society and the British Institute of Professional Photography. The work he did for the course looked at ways of altering images, digital photography and web design.

His skills have proved valuable to customers who have sought him out to make their dreams come true. The parents of a child who died wanted their battered but treasured shot enhanced; a man who lost his partner wanting a treasured memory of them at the same place creating from two images.

This cosmetic altering of family snapshots is very different from the project on which he is currently working.

Trevor is using his skills to help people express their feelings about their disabilities, while preparing to launch himself into the business world with a fellow graduate from his course.

Everyday items such as kerbstones, narrow doors and cramped parking bays may seem trivial facts of life for most of us, but these can prove daunting, if not insurmountable, to people with disabilities.

The work with the Activity Club, at Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, will continue into the new year, following which Trevor plans to hold exhibitions of the work.

l The exhibition from the Activity Club will be published online at The Northern Echo's disability website www.thisisthe- northeast.co.uk/leisure/access in the New Year