A cyclist has paid tribute to healthcare workers by creating a route spelling out NHS across his town on a fitness app.

Adam Bronkhorst planned the 12-mile route in his home town of Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, to create the design on the Strava cycling and running app.

The 45-year-old said the aim of his message, entitled “Thank you NHS (and keyworkers)”, was to show how people were coming together in the time of crisis.

He told the PA news agency: “I feel there is a Covid spirit – people talk about the Blitz and Dunkirk spirit, but there are amazing things people are doing now.

“I just wanted to spell out NHS across our little town so it was almost like the town saying thank you. I wanted to spell out key workers but doing NHS was complicated enough.

“Lots of people do Strava art, spelling out names or drawing animals or rude things, so I was looking at creative ways of still going for a ride within the limitations of staying within a couple of miles of home and within an hour and not stopping to talk to people.”

Mr Bronkhorst, who is a member of the Shoreham By Cycle cycling initiative, said the lack of traffic during the lockdown is encouraging many more people to get on their bikes.

The photographer said: “There is less traffic on the road so we are seeing people taking their bike out of the shed … They haven’t ridden for years, and we are trying to encourage that, showing that cycling is an alternative to driving.”

He added that other cyclists and runners had since taken up the challenge of creating routes spelling out NHS and he hoped the idea would spread across the country.