I wish this hadn’t happened to me, but it has and I would like to share it.
Yesterday, I was late for a photo shoot of a young up and coming actress who’s training for the London marathon. It was in an area I have never been before. Somewhere in SE London, for those who know the city.

I was rushing to the training grounds and had to cross some train tracks on the way. As I reached the end of the spiral foot bridge, I noticed a woman standing on the train tracks !! ON THE BLOODY TRAINTRACKS…. In the corner of my eye I had also noticed two police people running towards me. I looked at the women, who wasn’t more than 2 meters away from me, but seperated from me by a very tall fence.

I think for 30 seconds I was in total shock. Then I started yelling at her : What the hell are you doing?Get off the tracks woman, I didn’t know I could yell so hysterically at a stranger, but I did. She just shook her head, steadfast in her decision that she was going to end it there and then. All I could think was : Am I really going to have to witness this ? Right here in front of me ? When the police arrived, I started crying, I think I was in shock, I was shaking. But the determined woman had broken down in tears as well, after seeing my reaction; a stranger caring enough to get hysterical.

The police got her off the tracks safely in the end, after some persuasion. I don’t know what happened to her next or why or who she was. I was still late for my job, so had to run to get there. I was in no state to take any good pictures the first 30 minutes, oh I can tell you… It still makes me feel awkward and shocked. The biggerst shock of all was the feeling of being utterly powerless to do anything.

All I could do was to be me and cry. And deep down I know that reached her. I hope it did. I doesn’t even really matter, she was saved in the end and hopefully won’t do it again.