A RAILWAY worker from Ealing Broadway Station has been interviewed on live TV to talk about his heroic acts in saving 29 people from suicide.

Rizwan Javed, 30, is originally from East London and completed his training for the Samaritans' Managing Suicidal Contacts training course in 2015, and two days later he saved his first member of the public from attempting a suicide.

Javed who works for the Elizabeth Line also won the Samaritans Lifesaver Award in 2018 as a recognition of his heroic acts and has said the need to 'spread love and engage with each other' is now more important than ever.

Javed spoke to Good Morning Britain (GMB) about his experiences: "I joined the railway in 2015 and one of my managers at the time said it would be a good opportunity for me to do a Samaritans course.

"I didn't think much of it at the time but after attending the course I saw how beneficial it was and all the aspects of the learning and I was able to implement the training two days after receiving it."

When asked about the things he learnt about, he said: "The main things to look out for was how to identify a vulnerable person, be on the lookout and basically give you the confidence to challenge anyone that was vulnerable within your environment."

When asked about what we should look out for in a vulnerable person, he replied: "I think behaviours are one of the things which stand out, like if a person is positioned a certain way, the environment or signs that they are removing their clothing or distressed facial expressions, it's stuff like that that you would approach.

"There's not anything specific you might say because it could be anything from talking about the weather or a garment they're wearing, it's just about engaging with them.

"We've all been in situations where you're going through distress and the last thing you want is for someone to say, 'are you okay' because it's just about building small talk really and it doesn't really matter what you say, it's more how you say it and how you make it personal to engage in conversation."

Javed also talked about the first time he saved someone: "It was a cold evening, I was on a nightshift, and I noticed an individual in the station environment wearing barely nothing at the time, so I approached him and he didn't want to engage with me.

"However, I started talking about things maybe he was wearing and the weather and just thought about how I could with engage with him.

"Basically, I sat down with him to gain his trust and just listen to him and within that time he started trusting me and started opening up and we engaged from there onwards, then I provided him with the

help he needed.

"It felt like the course had been implemented in real life even down to the scenarios we had gone through, it was literally just like expressing them in real life with the individual and it was emotional, but it was good to get the person to a point of safety and hopefully get them the help they required to get back on track with their life."