A TEENAGER from Launceston has been praised for her bravery in pulling over a young woman from the wrong side of the railings on an overbridge recently.

Seventeen-year-old Natalia Cartmell from Launceston, who attends Callywith College in Bodmin and works at Launceston’s Tesco store, was walking to work along the A388 Tavistock Road at around 5.45am on Saturday, April 6 when she saw someone standing on the wrong side of the railings on the bridge overlooking the A30.

She told the Post: “I noticed a black silhouette on the bridge. As I approached it, there was a girl stood on the wrong side of the barriers about to jump.”

Natalia knew she had to act fast. She ran over to the woman and ‘tried to haul her over’ the rails, despite her restrictions.

The only way Natalia was able to avoid falling over the bridge was to hook her feet under the railings, her mother later told the Post.

Natalia continued: “Being so early in the morning, I was surprised to see anyone out, hence why she in particular caught my eye.

“I decided to rush over to her because it felt like the right thing to do — where, until it happens, you think everyone would have the same approach. But once you’re in that situation, trying to flag cars down, you realise how many people want to avoid such a ‘hassle’.”

Natalia knows only too well the affects of suicide, after losing her father last year. “The fact that I lost my dad to suicide ten months ago, and my friend two months later, made the situation more personal to me.

“I think that mental health services in Cornwall are absolutely brilliant. I think the NHS work incredibly hard. However, I also believe that there are a limited scale of resources out there that help the NHS in Cornwall with mental health.

“I’d say to people that might be struggling to speak out, contact the Samaritans, other online health services or just speak to close family and friends, those who support you — because you may think that they don’t want to hear about your situations and so you try to keep it inside to yourself, but that could just make it harder for you in the long run. Speak out.”

Natalia’s mum, Linda Knee, has said she is ‘incredibly proud’ of her daughter, who ‘didn’t give a thought’ for her own safety at the time of pulling the woman over the railings.

Linda said: “We are incredibly proud of Natalia, but dread to think, ‘what if she was unable to hold on?’

“We could easily have lost her. I asked her how she didn’t fall herself and she said, ‘it was okay, I had my feet under the railings’. She didn’t give a thought for her own safety, just focused on saving her. She acted on impulse without a second thought and that’s what people do in situations like this.

“The poor girl who fell on Monday needs to know that people care about her. We do hope she is okay, we would love to know how she is. She is in our thoughts.”

If anybody is struggling with their mental health or experiencing suicidal thoughts, please contact the Samaritans on 116 123 for free or visit www.samaritans.org