A young Asian woman from Keighley has taken the first step on the ladder towards her ambition of becoming a business tycoon.

Simmy (Simerun) Akhtar has bought the former Feversham College building, in Leeds Road, Bradford, from the council and has redeveloped it to set up business with her own DIY store, which opened on Saturday.

Simmy, 26, employs two people and hopes Leeds Road DIY will be the start of a chain of stores which would make her name in the business world. Family and friends loaned money and helped her to buy the former Muslim girls school.

The huge conversion into a store, which will sell anything from doors and bathroom suites to nuts and bolts, has been carried out by members of her family, including her father Ahmed Hussain, brother-in-law Talib Hussain, both building contractors, cousin Khalid Manzoor, and another brother-in-law Muddassar Manzoor .

Simmy said: "My message to any young Asian woman is to go for it, however unlikely it may seem.

"I have friends who are lawyers and doctors, but I don't know any other woman with a DIY business."

She said her family was understanding and supportive, and all her five sisters had in-dependent personalities.

The former pupil of Greenhead School gained A-levels, including business studies, at Shipley College and a degree in psychology from Manchester University.

She added: "I think this is a beautiful building. It was something I really wanted. At first I thought of converting it into studio flats, but it is the wrong place for it.

"I will be putting more money into the redevelopment of the building as the business progresses."

Opinion page 8