On a summer afternoon in 2019, a nurse named Charlotte stood near a railway station in West Yorkshire in the UK. After years of struggling with her mental health, she had made a decision to end her life. But as she waited by the tracks, a train pulled up. The driver, Dave Lay, saw her. He stepped out of his cab and walked toward her.
“Hi, my name is Dave, are you having a bad day?” he asked.
Charlotte was startled. “Yeah, just a bit,” she replied.
Dave didn’t leave. “OK, we can sit and talk until it feels better,” he said.
They sat together for 30 minutes. Dave told her they could keep talking “until you feel comfortable enough” to get on the train. Eventually, Charlotte agreed. He took her to Skipton Station, where police were waiting to help.
The next day, Charlotte needed to find him. She posted on Facebook, asking if anyone from Northern Rail knew the driver. “I’d have understood if he didn’t want to hear from me, but I just wanted to say ‘thank you,’” she said. Someone recognized Dave and gave Charlotte his number. She sent him a message. He texted back right away.
“I needed to know she was all right,” Dave admitted. “I’d contacted police to try to find out what happened to her and just wanted to make sure she was safe.”
They started texting every day. Two months later, they met for coffee. Then they met again. Soon, they were inseparable.
A second chance for both of them
In July 2020, their story took another turn. Dave had back pain. Charlotte’s training as a nurse made her insist he seek professional help.
“I just put it down to a bad back,” Dave said. “Charlotte kept saying, ‘Go to the doctors.’ I said it was just me getting old.” The Doctors ran tests. Dave had testicular cancer.
Without Charlotte’s persistence, he wouldn’t have gone in time. Just weeks later, he was given the all-clear Dave admitted, “Charlotte may say I saved her life, which I don’t know about really, but she saved my life as well.”
In 2022, they married. Charlotte was 22 weeks pregnant. Now, they have three children.
“Life gets better”
The couple shares their story to offer hope. “Life does get better,” Charlotte said. “You just have to be here to see it.”
She encourages people to check in on loved ones. “You don’t have to offer life-changing advice or say anything profound. Just sitting down with a cuppa can make all the difference.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health and suicidal thoughts, you can always call the mental health lifeline in the U.S. by dialing 988.
You can meet Charlotte and Dave Lay in the interview embedded below:
