A POLICE officer saved the life of a woman on the railway tracks, just seconds before a high-speed train was passing.
For her actions that day, PC Meg Gray has won a Cheshire Police Federation Bravery Award.
On the afternoon of October 3, 2024, PC Gray attended a report of a woman who was intending to take her own life on a railway track in Widnes.
As she approached the woman, a control room operator said that they had not managed to get trains to stop, so she knew the woman was in real danger.
PC Gray recalled: “I was trying to approach her, but she was backing away, closer to the tracks.
“Then I saw train lights in the distance and thought, ‘oh my God, that's coming towards us’.
“The woman was just completely focused on the train and I thought, ‘it's now or never, I'm going to have to grab her’.”
PC Gray said that she knew that the train was going to be coming at them at full force, so she grabbed the woman’s arm and her shoulder and pulled her back.
“I think she was screaming, ‘let me die’, and I was just saying, ‘no, no, no, you're not’,” she explained.
“If I'd have just pulled her maybe a little bit the wrong way or she had got free, she would have jumped straight in front of that train.”
PC Gray succeeded in pulling the woman off the tracks and, in a matter of seconds, two high-speed trains rushed past them.
However, the woman was still trying to push away from the officer and get back onto the tracks.
PC Gray said: “I can remember the force of the train going past. It just comes at you full throttle, and the wind hit my face.
“The second train, not so much, because it slowed down and then stopped. The driver said, ‘would you like me to pass the message to put a stop on the line?’, and I was like, ‘yes!’.”
PC Gray shouted on her radio for back-up, a police colleague arrived, and they took the woman away from the tracks and sectioned her under the Mental Health Act for her own safety.
When she heard that she had received a bravery award, PC Gray said: “I couldn't believe it. I was shocked.”
Jamie Thompson, chair of Cheshire Police Federation, said: “Meg acted immediately and courageously in this precarious situation.
“She placed herself in direct danger, displaying remarkable bravery, composure, and selflessness. Her intervention undoubtedly saved the woman’s life.”
PC Gray will attend the Cheshire Police Federation Bravery Awards 2026 on Thursday.
At the event, an overall winner will be announced, who will travel to London for the national Police Federation Bravery Awards in July.
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