When a freak fire ripped through her dry cleaning business, Liz Stone faced two choices: either shut up shop or reinvent the business.

She decided to rebuild and is now believed to be Kent's first fully eco friendly dry cleaners.

Liz, who runs Mark Michaels in Margate, is back in business after 10 months following a devastating fire which gutted the shop in New Street last April.

The business is now totally eco friendly using a cleaning product better for the environment and ditching plastic for biodegradable bags and packaging.

Liz says Sensene, the new product, is both better for the clothes, customers and does not harm the o zone layer.

"We're totally eco friendly," she says. "Nobody else in Kent has this machine, it's a very new solvent and hasn't been around a long time.

"It's been used and approved and the finish is just about 100% better. Clothes are softer, the colour isn't stripped from the fabric and woollens come back lovely and soft.

"It doesn't hurt the o zone layer. Before, chemicals would always remain in the clothes and your skin absorbs anything that goes on to it. But this doesn't hurt in any way whatsoever.

"There's no fumes with this one whereas before there were fumes with the other one.

"We've bought degradable polythene and the hangers are degradable and they're not plastic coated.

"We're not doing carrier bags any more. Duvets if required are in degradable bags. Everything we use is biodegradable now."

Liz employs two people - Lynda Blake and Geraldine Stephens - to work alongside her and a steady stream of customers are beginning to come back.

She has run the shop, which has been in Margate for more than a century, for 30 years working there for a total of 40 years.

Liz says she hopes other dry cleaners will start using the eco friendly machinery but with the equipment around 30% more expensive than the more common perklone machines, very few are investing.

It was the fire which convinced Liz to invest in the new technology, bravely deciding to cash in her pension to change the business into the eco friendly venture.

"I decided that if I came back as I was, there wasn't any benefit to any of us really," she said.

"The insurance company would only give me so much towards new machinery and I thought I might as well go into it in a big way.

"That's when I decided I would cash in my pension and go for this new eco friendly dry cleaning."

The new machine cost around £45,000 with the cost of filling it with Sensene around £2,500 per load.

The fire destroyed the inside of the building when a pile of tea towels with cooking oil on them set themselves alight.

"I'd never heard of it before. But in the right atmosphere it self combusts," Liz added.

"The firemen actually showed me where the fire started and it was right in the middle of these towels.

"I started talking to people and mechanics told me they have that problem with oil on rags in garages.

"It was really freaky and it has to be the right atmosphere.

"Walking along the street after it happened, people I didn't know came up and were giving me hugs and they were just so lovely. I didn't think they knew who I was."

Liz was able to continue her contracts by working from another dry cleaners in Birchington to keep business going.

"It hasn't been easy," she added. "We've tried to advertise as much as we can and contact customers. We just have to hope they come back.

"Every day somebody will come in or two or three will come in and say 'we're pleased you're open, we've been waiting for you'."