WHEN Stuart May lost the use of his arm in a car accident, he had to rebuild not only his life, but also his career.

A success in the world of financial services, he practically lived in his car - driving from his home in the Yorkshire Dales to his office in Newcastle, then out to visit clients on Teesside.

But one fateful winter's morning in January 1999, it all changed.

He left his home in Langthwaite, in Richmondshire, North Yorkshire, and was driving past Catterick Garrison, when his car hit a patch of black ice.

"My car spun out of control and ploughed through a roadside fence," he said.

"The top rail of the barrier smashed through the windscreen and just about took off my left arm."

He spent a month in hospital in Leeds and six months of hydrotherapy in Scorton, near Richmond, but extensive nerve damage in the injured arm has rendered it useless.

It was while he was recovering that his interest in computers and the Internet started to blossom. "I was getting bored at home and decided to take a course," he said.

He met IT wizard Jonathan Barkass a couple of years later and Phydos, the online music store, was born.

The company, the first project funded by One NorthEast's New Ventures Programme, is taking on the Internet retail big boys at their own game - and claims to be beating them.

The site has a back catalogue of more than a million titles - outstripping major online books, music and games distributor Amazon - and is adding 20,000 more every week, sourced from suppliers across the world.

It specialises in hard-to-find items such as limited edition releases. The lists are broken down into 110 genres, covering everything from the Sex Pistols to Rachmaninoff.

Demand from younger users has prompted the company to start stocking newer material such as chart releases. It also plans to expand into sales of merchandising, DVDs and videos.

Mr May handles all the distribution and customer care from his office at home, firing off e-mails and orders on a special keyboard built to make typing easy for people who can only use one hand.

Mr Barkass, of Sunderland, is in charge of the technical side of the business.

"I have the expertise in customer relations from my past job and Jonathan is the whizzkid," said Mr May.

"He is unbelievable. Any time I make a suggestion for something to improve the site, he carries it out straight away."

The village of Langthwaite may not appear to be the ideal launch pad for world domination of the online music retail industry and Mr May admits it has its faults.

"We do suffer a bit, due to the lack of communications technology," he said. "We can't get broadband and mobile phones don't work out here."

He moved to the village in 1995, after marrying his wife, Jill. The couple have a nine-month-old daughter, Adele.

"Working from home means I can spend more time with my family when they are around. I can take a break in the afternoon, then go back to it after Adele is settled in.

"And customers are really impressed when I answer their e-mails at ten o'clock at night."

The name, Phydos, came from the initial drive behind the business - to create a service of physical downloads, where shoppers could cherrypick their favourite songs and have them burned on to one CD.

Mr Barkass, who heads the company, said: "We ran into some legal problems with this, but we are still looking to develop it in the future."

He is working on the project with the University of Sunderland's Intelligent Systems Solutions and Business Development teams.

"The site has enormous potential," he said. "It could revolutionise the world of back catalogue music."

For further details, visit the website, www.phydos.com