A Thame rugby player has been hailed as a hero, after his girl friend spotted a woman about to jump from a motorway bridge.
Chinnor Rugby Club ‘s First Team player, Michael Owen’s girlfriend Jemma Zuleika Richards, described on social media what happened as they were driving home after visiting his parents in Wales: “Just spotted a girl about to throw herself off a bridge on the M4 into the oncoming traffic so told Michael to pull over. We ran through all the cars to get to her and he spent an hour holding onto her until the fire engines could lift her down! Such an unbelievably proud girlfriend right now ❤ He literally saved her life, and she was so grateful, she gave us massive hugs saying thank you and she is in good hands now.. ”
Talking to the South Wales Evening Post about the ordeal, Michael said: “”I got to her and started talking to her. She was clearly very upset, so I just talked about anything I could think of with her. She seemed to like my accent, so we talked about Wales a lot. It seemed to calm her down.
“I had to hold onto her to make sure she didn’t slip while we waited for a fire engine with a ladder to come and help her down. We waited a good hour, because she was too frightened to go down a ladder, so they needed to bring out a second engine.
Broken hand
“The police closed off the road and parked a lorry underneath the bridge, just in case she fell off. All the while, I kept holding on to her and reassuring her. I’ve got a broken hand from playing rugby at the moment, so it really hurt. But it was worth it in the end, because she was very grateful to us that we stayed with her and helped her through it.”
Today, a proud Michael has said that he and Jemma are focusing on the future, as Gemma began climbing her personal ladder towards her goal of becoming a solicitor, with Lightfoots in Thame
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