3 Boys Saw a Man Attempting Suicide. 'Leave Me,' He Said

English students rewarded for saving man's life
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 1, 2018 1:20 PM CDT
3 Boys Saw a Man Trying to Hang Himself. They Grabbed Him
A man walks across a bridge in England.   (Nick Potts/PA via AP)

Last year, three schoolboys stumbled on a man trying to hang himself off a bridge. Now they've been awarded by a British charity for saving the man's life, the Sun reports. "If ever there was a story to balance up the bad ones this is it," says Andrew Chapman, secretary of the Royal Human Society, which awards brave acts that save human life. "These three excelled themselves." Devonte Cafferkey, 13, Shawn Young, 13, and Sammy Farah, 14, were walking home from school last September in Waltham Cross, England, when they saw a 21-year-old man outside a bridge's safety area ready to jump with a rope around his neck. Two of the boys grabbed his legs while Shawn ran for help.

He found Joanne Stammers, 47, who took over for the boys despite being disabled with a blood-clotting disease, the Hertfordshire Mercury reported at the time. "The man just didn't want to live anymore, he was crying and I said to him 'Please don't do this to us' and he said 'Then go and just leave me'. The more he moved around the tighter the rope got." Soon someone else showed up and eventually the would-be jumper came down, allowing the three boys to head home. Devonte's mother, Jacqueline Cafferkey, says her son was traumatized but feels relieved that the man is recovering. "He does not want to talk about it, it has been hard," she says. "I am filled with pride. I keep telling him he saved someone's life and I hope that he realizes that now." (More suicide stories.)

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