A Suffolk man has created a website which locates your closest 24-hour defibrillator and provides you with directions on how to get to it.

The site, which is called Defibsearch, covers Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.

Simon Herbert, a computer science graduate, spent several weeks creating the tool.

He said: “I was building a new website for my computer business and initially I just wanted to add something to add some local value to it.

“To start with it was just a simple local defibrillator list but I thought I could make this much better. I used an online database, the Google maps API, a few tricks and some web HTML code.

“It was something I just got interested in and then it just grew and grew. At the beginning it was intended to only cover around a 10-mile radius - now it covers all of East Anglia.

“It is a useful free tool and I just want people to use it.”

Mr Herbert had to locate each defibrillator and manually add it into a database for the tool to work.

There are currently more than 1,600 defibrillators listed but the database is constantly growing.

Mr Herbert only lists the defibrillators which are available 24/7.

He added: “I have found rural postcodes can cover a large area and are unsuitable for accurate position location. So I used longitude and latitude coordinates rather than postal addresses and postcodes.”

The Hitcham man is still working on ways he can advance his creation.

He said: “I am currently working on a feature which will push the data to a Bluetooth device for those who are driving in the car.

“I haven’t come across any other tools which does this.”

Suppliers of defibrillators can add themselves to the map and have access to amend their listing at anytime.

The site works on mobile phones, you can see it here.

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