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Three heroic schoolchildren who refused to let go of a man trying to jump off a bridge and saved his life are set to be presented with national awards.
Devonte Cafferkey, 13, and Sammy Farah, 14, rushed to grab a man sitting with a rope around his neck on the edge of an A10 overpass in Waltham Cross on September 21 last year.
Friend Shawn Young, who was 12 at the time, called for help.
While trying to keep the man back and talk him out of suicide, he passed the boys his mobile phone saying “if it rings, don’t answer it”.
The boys were helped by 47-year-old Joanne Stammers, who is registered disabled with Klippel–Trénaunay syndrome, a rare disability that makes her highly prone to blood clotting.
Despite her condition, which prevents her from working, Joanne took over from the boys and held onto the man "for what feels like forever" and was left with bruising all over her arms.
Another man, James Higlett, did his part in saving the man’s life. All five will receive awards from the Royal Humane Society, a charity promoting life-saving intervention.
Shawn’s mum, Carol, has been amazed at the boys’ maturity and said they have “just got on with it” since their life-saving efforts..
She said: “I am extremely proud of all three of them, they are all good boys and it’s nice that they are getting recognised for doing something good in the community.
“Quite often in the national news there are a lot of negative reports about young people so it is nice to have something positive.
“They are very young and I marvel at how they are all dealing with it. Every time I speak to them I learn something new about what happened.
“For example, the man was passing out and got heavier for them, I didn’t know that until recently.”
Jacqueline Cafferkey, Devonte's mum, found out the good news a couple of weeks ago and described it as a “huge achievement”.
The three children, who go to St Mary’s High School, picked up Special Achievement Awards at the Broxbourne Youth Awards for their bravery.
Joanne described the award as a “great honour” and said she is still in touch with Jacqueline.
“It’s amazing to get this award, it’s obviously under sad circumstances but it’s also great that the kids are getting something for what they did,” she said.
“I am really pleased for them and I hope other children can see it’s worth stopping to help someone.”
Joanne, who was on her way back from visiting her mum in Waltham Cross when she saw Shawn calling for help, told the Mercury she “hates” going under the bridge now and avoids it when she can.
She still sees her mum once a week and pays special attention to any bridge she goes under now to make sure nobody is standing by the edge.
The heroes that day were nominated for these awards by Hertfordshire Police. A date for the awards presentation has not yet been set.
RythRogue on March 31st, 2018 at 01:36 UTC »
Did anyone else think this was weird?
The whole article is about the three boys and a woman with a blood clotting disease, but there was a whole other dude there and gets that one sentence. Weird reporting.
prxchampion on March 31st, 2018 at 00:18 UTC »
My buddy worked at a train station, he climbed on the track and got someone off of it who was trying to kill themselves. He was marked to get a special company reward, but they revoked it because the person came back a few weeks later and actually killed themselve and they thought it would be weird giving an award for saving a life when the person had died a few weeks later anyway.
theKayaKaya on March 30th, 2018 at 21:24 UTC »
Angels. All of them🙌