A Southampton businessman has been shortlisted for the 2023 Great British Entrepreneur Awards for his work tackling vapes in schools.

Simon Hassett, founder of VapeGuardian – a company manufacturing and supplying vape detection devices – will be attending the awards ceremony in London in November.

The 36-year-old from Hedge End, who has a background in software, came up with a vape detector after being tasked with helping a teacher find a solution to students vaping in school.

The device is used in several schools across Hampshire after Simon secured the first sale last October.

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VapeGuardian says it is committed to bringing about change with regards to vaping and the risks it poses, especially to younger people.

As of last week, 237 schools across the UK used the VapeGuardian system with 80 per cent of them receiving alerts the first week back.

VapeGuardian says one school’s detector was triggered 51 times in a single day.

The Great British Entrepreneur Awards was created to celebrate and recognise stories of entrepreneurs creating and growing exceptional British businesses.

Now in its 11th year these awards have been described as “the Grammys of entrepreneurship” by former winner and now Dragon, Steven Bartlett.