Man saves stranger from jump off bridge

'I KNOW HOW IT FEELS TO WANT TO END IT ALL'

- CARL EVE

A GOOD Samaritan who turned his van around after he spotted a man about to leap from a footbridge on to the A38, grabbed him and pulled him back to safety, has said he hopes to meet up with the man he saved "for a coffee, and a hug and a chat".

Ian (not his real name) contacted The Herald following our report of Andy (the man on the bridge), who had told us he wanted to pass on his thanks to the person who saved him from certain death last month.

Andy (whose name we have also changed) said he felt hands grab him after he had climbed over railings and was beginning to topple forwards, before the hands yanked him back over the railing and he was clasped in a tight embrace.

Andy said he recalled how the man fiercely hugged him, saying: "I'm not going to let this happen to you. I lost my daughter two years ago." A few weeks later, as he began the arduous task of recovery, Andy reached out via the Herald's sister website Plymouth Live to offer his heartfelt thanks to his rescuer.

It is perhaps not without surprise that his rescuer, 'Ian, said he was "on a long journey of mental health myself", having suffered his own troubles and struggles over many years. He had faced his own despair, enduring the agony of losing his daughter, who succumbed to her own battle with depression and who ended her life in 2021.

Despite this, he revealed that he has done his best, with the help of counselling, to turn his own pain around, find new purpose and a positivity he wants to encourage in others.

Ian said: "I've had mental health issues myself and I'm coming out the other side. I had a car crash when I was young, was abused, my first wife died, I lost my daughter to suicide. I've been there - I know how much it can hurt. But one of the best things to do is to talk because once you talk about it, it releases it.

"There's not enough awareness [of suicide], not enough help out there.