HAMPTON -- When a massive fire ripped through the Exeter home Megan Dube shared with a friend two years ago, the single mother lost everything. The image of seeing her son's toys melting in the fire as she escaped the burning house with him in her arms is still vivid in her mind. As are the burning banisters she raced past as she ran back into the house to wake her roommate and pull her to safety.

Dube, 33, has come a long way since then and recently fulfilled her dream of opening her own massage therapy studio, after working at several area spas. She now calls a second floor space at 540 Lafayette Road home to her Sacred Sense Massage Therapy.

"I really feel like a phoenix coming out of the ashes. I feel very enlightened and I feel very blessed by the support of my family and friends," Dube said. "That fire was very, very devastating; it changed my life in a lot of ways. But this was a huge karmic breakthrough. As hard as it's been, it's forced me to grow."

Dube, a Kingston native, has always been interested in holistic healing and has spent 12 years studying aromatherapy. Her desire to branch into massage therapy came to her one day and she began working toward that goal. Her first challenge was returning to school to earn, her GED, as she had dropped out of high school during a tough time in her life. It wasn't easy, she said, as a single mom working and raising her son at the time. But she stuck with it, earned her GED, and then enrolled in the Northeast Institute of Whole Health in Manchester.

She worked at a small spa in Rye, before working at the Wentworth by the Sea hotel in New Castle and the Eight Winds Day Spa in Hampton. Along the way, she also started teaching a course in Indian head massage at the Northeast Institute of Whole Health.

After the fire, she got a job working at a horse farm in Massachusetts to help get back on her feet, while also working as a massage therapist. But the dream of owning her own studio was always in her mind and when she found the space in Hampton, she knew it was time to go out on her own.

Dube had a vision to trans-form the space into a calm and soothing retreat for her clients. Her father Thomas Dube helped her with the carpentry, including building a custom cabinet in her massage room where clients can hang their clothes during their treatment. Dube painted the walls in her waiting room space a warm gold and accented the room with green curtains and a corner water fall.

"I wanted to provide a safe and homelike environment for my clients," she said, adding she uses flannel sheets on her massage table for the same reason. "I really paid a lot of attention to detail."

She specializes in deep tissue massage, therapeutic massage, aromatherapy massage, neuromuscular massage and a unique massage called Hawaiian Temple Lomi Lomi massage. "It's a very ancient form of meditative massage," she explained. "It's very hypnotic."

She is working to keep her prices reasonable for clients and they range from $3S for a 2S-minute treatment to $70 for a 60-minute treatment.

Dube is looking forward to her new venture and credits her support network as well as Buddhist faith with getting her here. "I've had a lot of strength and support from my Buddhist community," she said. "And some very loyal clients that have just been rocks for me."