A Malvern woman is fulfilling her dream . . . by ironing six hours a day, seven days a week.

Katherine Lowe set up a business doing other people's ironing so she could stay at home with her two children.

Now the business has proved so successful that she is thinking of buying a delivery van.

A trained zoo keeper and veterinary nurse, Katherine ran Upton pet shop Creature Comforts for five years before being swept off her feet by policeman husband Dane.

The pair were married a month later and within six months were expecting their daughter Lucy, now aged two. A son, Ben, now eight months, followed shortly after.

"Getting married and having babies was what I had always wanted to do," said 30-year-old Katherine, of Dogwood Close, Malvern.

"I was sad closing my shop but it would have been impossible to keep it on, what with childcare costing around £150 a week."

Instead, Katherine was forced to come up with a way of earning a living that would allow her to spend time with her children.

"Dane works all sorts of funny shifts so I thought about doing something people didn't like doing," she said.

The home ironing service proved to be ideal.

"I can work round the kids," said Katherine. "When they have a bad day they come first and all my customers know that.

"It gives me a really good part-time wage. It means we have our meals out and a bottle of wine and makes sure our babies don't go without."