YORK inventor and entrepreneur James Talbot's new headphones were initially designed for safety reasons.

He'd noticed that cyclists or runners listening to music on their headphones were deaf to other sounds around them.

So he designed headphones that transmit sound through vibrations in the skull instead of through the ears- leaving the ears free to hear other things.

Being a modern young entrepreneur, he turned to the online crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to raise the investment needed.

And it was then that he found his headphones could have a whole different use too.

Boroughbridge teenager Thomas Robertshaw was born with Mircotia. His inner ears work perfectly - but the outer lobe never developed properly.

He was deaf in one ear, and had never been able to hear stereo sound: until his step-dad Stuart Winder found out online about James's new headphones.

The result? Fourteen-year-old Thomas has been able to hear in stereo for the first time in his life.

"The look on his face was truly special," James said.

We bet it was. What a fantastic story - and what a great bit of York entrepreneurship to make it happen.