Off-duty nurse missed daughter's play to help woman on bridge

Sian O’Neill spent half an hour talking the woman down off the bridge and another hour-and-a-half with her while she was assessed in the back of a police car.

The mum-of-two had been on her way to the school play on July 15 when she spotted someone on the “wrong side of the railings” on a bridge in Redditch.

“I asked my husband if he knew how to get to the bridge, he said yes so I got him to take me up there, then he went off to the play with our other daughter,” she said.

“I asked the patient if it was ok to approach them, they said it was. I could see they were in distress - they were hanging on to the bridge by only a couple of fingers.

“I asked if there was anything I could do and told them if they let go, they would lose their life. After a while they gave me their arm.

“When the police turned up and started to approach, that actually made things worse, so I pulled up my big girl pants and told them to stop.

“Eventually the patient said it was ok for the police to approach and came back over the railings. It felt like we were up there for hours but it was actually about 30 minutes.”

Sian was among those recognised at the Worcestershire Safeguarding Awards, which was held at Perdiswell Young People’s Leisure Club in Worcester on Tuesday (November 18).

Awards host Professor Keith Brown, who chairs the Worcestershire Safeguarding Adults Board, thanked Sian for looking out for the safety of others even on her day off.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Sian said: “I’m glad the woman got the help she needed and she has since made a full recovery.

“I’m not mental health trained - I’m a general nurse with an A&E background, I think that helped me stay calm when the adrenaline hit. I didn’t think about it.

“And I saw a video of the school play later on, so I didn’t miss out completely.”