A SINGER from Bury claims she is being blocked from working in North-west pubs and clubs by agents who discriminate against her blindness.

And she claims she is being turned down because they don't want her guide dog on the premises and fear audiences will be "embarrassed" by her blindness.

But defiant Katie Lee Carpenter, 50, who is totally blind, says she will not take the discrimination lying down.

Katie, of Hawk Close, has already contacted Bury North MP David Chaytor and written to the union Equity. And she says she is prepared to take her fight to court if necessary.

Born totally blind, Katie always had a gift for music and developed a successful career as a professional singer when she was younger. About three years ago, she renewed her professional career after starring in a fund-raising concert in aid of the International Glaucoma Association - a charity close to her heart.

She says he success on stage gave her the confidence to rebuild a career in live entertainment.

Her career was starting to take off when, she claims, bookings suddenly started to dry up. Katie, who married her second husband Alan Thomas last year after being introduced through a dating agency, stormed: "My blindness shouldn't be an issue, but it is.

"When I sing I go along to show off my abilities, not my disabilities.

"It's sad that as the dawn of a new Millennium approaches some people still have these archaic attitudes towards the disabled. These people have got an attitude problem."

She claims she's been told that an agent told her it was impossible to put her on anywhere because of her guide dog Ernie, and that her blindness embarrassed the audience. But she described the excuses as "rubbish".

One job she did manage to secure was at the Hare and Hounds on Outwood Road between Radcliffe and Ringley, and after telling her audience of her predicament, more than 150 customers signed a petition calling for the discrimination to stop.

"I have a right to work," she said. "Some people say the disabled are scroungers. But we're not. I want to work, and I'm being stopped."

Katie is confident that her talent is not stopping her getting bookings.

"With a voice like mine I should be making a lot of money," she said. "Acts that aren't as good as me are getting work, yet someone like me is scratching for jobs.

"It's all because I can't see."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.