Many rail employees who have taken our courses have used their skills to save lives.
Staff stories
Hear from some of the rail staff who’ve taken our course and found themselves in a situation where they needed to use their new skills.
Andrew and Neena
Andrew Wellbeloved and Neena Naylor from Network Rail discuss the Managing Suicidal Contacts course and how they used the skills they learned to help someone in need.
Hannah's story
Hannah works for Virgin Trains as a Team Leader. Within two weeks of attending Samaritans' Managing Suicidal Contacts training, she was putting her skills to use when a colleague made her aware of a vulnerable-looking woman.
"We were concerned about how upset she looked and when my colleague approached her, she tried to avoid him. He continued to pursue a conversation with her and she revealed that she wanted to end her life.
"My colleague had also attended the course, so he knew that he needed to move her to a place of safety. I started talking to her, while my colleague contacted the British Transport Police (BTP).
"We spoke an hour, while I listened to her talking about some terrible events that had happened to her. She was crying, telling me she didn’t want to go on living anymore and hadn’t been eating.
"While we waited for the BTP to arrive, I offered her a Samaritans contact card, so she could talk to someone and get support.
Before I attended the course, I wouldn’t have known what to say, or how to react to what she was telling me. I probably would have tried to avoid the subject because I was frightened of making it worse.
Hannah
"My colleague and I both found the information and training amazingly helpful and it proved really effective in helping me to get the woman to speak to me.
"Our conversation made her feel better and calmed her down before the police arrived."
Ken's story
Ken's a Mobile Operations Manager for Network Rail in Wales. Within weeks of attending the Managing Suicidal Contacts course, he contacted Samaritans to let the team know how he had put his training into action.
"I was travelling to London and I became aware of a lady on the seat in front who was becoming more and more unsettled by phone calls and text messages she was making and receiving. I started to keep an eye on her, and by the time we got to Reading I could see that she was crying
"As the train left the station, I leant forward and just said, “Are you ok, you seem to have the weight of the world on your shoulders”. She looked at me and said, “No, not at all,” with a “please help” look in her eyes.
I held her hand while she tried to speak about things but she was too upset so I comforted her and tried to make small talk.
Ken
"As we neared our final stop in London she kept on repeating, “Please don’t let me go down to the Underground.” I kept telling her that I wouldn’t.
"I told her we would stay on the train when everyone got off, and when the passengers started leaving, I asked one of them to alert the conductor, and when he arrived we decided to call the Police, who called an ambulance. I stayed with her to comfort her for another hour or so waiting for the ambulance.
"She was a very nice lady who just had some bad situations all arriving on a bad day. Afterwards, she sent me a message thanking me for everything I had done and added that she probably wouldn't be here if I hadn't bothered to ask if everything was OK."