Symbol copyright Gillian Assor Image caption Gillian says she now has an “strange” and “fantastic” bond with Tommy
“I’m Not a hero,” says Gillian Assor, six months after preventing a suicide on a railway bridge close to London. “I simply came about to be strolling previous.”
in keeping with figures from the British Transport Police, 2018 has seen a 20% rise in contributors of the general public intervening to forestall other folks killing themselves on railways.
In May, whilst out strolling her canine, Gillian become one in all those other folks.
“to start with i did not realize what it used to be,” she tells the BBC, recounting her journey back home prior the bridge. “But as we got nearer, I realised it used to be a person.
“They had been crying, hysterically crying and making noises.”
Knowledge and advice
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Tommy informed Gillian why he was on the bridge, but that, she says, is a question with a purpose to remain between them.
Eventually, she persuaded Tommy to name his parents and allow them to recognize where he was.
She waited until they arrived – about 25 mins after she first approached Tommy – then retreated.
“i was a little bit blown away, thinking: ‘Did that simply occur?'”
Gillian handiest spoke to her mother and a friend about her enjoy – but later within the 12 months realised other people she had never met had been discussing her tale online.
One Sunday morning, her husband showed her a Fb submit.
It started: “i do know I Am asking the not possible, and i do know that is like on the lookout for a needle in a haystack, but four months in the past i attempted to take my life and and a stranger stopped me along with her canine…”
Symbol copyright Gillian Assor Symbol caption Gillian, Tommy and Gillian’s dog, who sat among them at the bridge 
As she learn the post, Gillian realised she was once the stranger.
She determined not to reply on the thread – “i believed, it is not approximately me and it shouldn’t be approximately me. It used to be about him.”
Her husband sent Tommy a private message, explaining the stranger used to be his wife. The pair spoke on the telephone that day.
Three days later they organized to fulfill in an area pub.
“I saw him walking from the opposite side of the pub, he flung his hands around me and that i concept: ‘Bless him.'”
He clung to her for greater than a minute, saying: “You stored my life. You saved my life.”
‘Overwhelming’
They spent an hour in combination, which Gillian describes as “different”.
“When You Consider That then we have now walked the canine a few times and we’re in contact two or 3 times per week,” she says.
“it is the most overwhelming feeling I Have ever had, instead of giving delivery.
“He Is in my center now. The bond is there and it is implausible.
“it is a very extraordinary bond – it is not spiritual, it is simply an invisible and not tangible thing in my middle.”
Tommy continues to be looking forward to counselling on the NHS, Gillian says, but the pair have deliberate a trip again to the bridge the place they met “to make a pleasing, new revel in”.
Gillian Assor is assisting Samaritans’ Small Talk Saves Lives marketing campaign.
