A former chief executive who found love through a lonely hearts agency has started her own matchmaking business.

Caroleanne Clarke joined The Enterprise Agency (Brighton, Hove and Lewes) in April but left after a few months due to ill health.

Now she has started her own firm, SearchMate Brighton, a dating agency which plays cupid for hard-working singletons.

Caroleanne, 45, said: "It was partly seeing people coming to the agency for advice that encouraged me to start my own business.

"I had been in London for so long and always wanted to come back to Brighton, where I was born, to run a business. The agency was the loop that brought me back here."

Caroleanne was a senior company director in London, bringing up her daughter on her own, when she met her current partner through an introduction agency.

It inspired her to set up her own dating service and she bought into the SearchMate franchise taking charge of the Brighton postcode area.

She said: "A lot of agencies are very good but a lot are very bad. We want to bring a real level of professionalism into the business so people are guided through the process."

Unlike some other introduction agencies, SearchMate Brighton does not throw people together through a crude computer matching system.

Instead, potential candidates are personally screened by Caroleanne to help prevent members wasting time and money on unsuitable introductions.

The company places adverts in local and national newspapers to find potential partners for its members but then a filtering process begins.

Caroleanne said: "We are much more like headhunters than typical dating agencies. We actively go out to find a suitable partner rather than just provide an ad service."

As part of the package Caroleanne is also running a personal image service to help people hone their dating and social skills before a date.

She said: "A lot of people just forget how to go on a date and once you lose that confidence it is very difficult to meet people.

"We will also give them an image makeover because if you look good you feel good. We are trying to get some retailers involved in that side of things."