I was at a train station, and station staff saved a little girl's life. They called for help and as a nurse I ran over. I emailed the station singing their praises, but the reply was pretty dismissive and didn't seem to realise that the station staff had genuinely administered LIFE SAVING first aid. I think in their reply they refered to it as 'potentially life saving actions' which I felt really downplayed what the station staff did that day.

(It was a toddler choking who had gone a bit grey/blue. Station staff administered back slaps and she regained colour. But I honestly thought I was going to have to do CPR on the child initially).

I work in healthcare, so do stuff to keep people alive regularly - but I actually saved my partners’ life on holiday a few years ago.

He choked, horrendously, on some bacon one morning during breakfast, went red and made awful noises, and I had do the Heimlich manoeuvre and hit his back until it came out. Shouting “oh my god oh my god!!!” repeatedly throughout as I was in utter panic mode.

It was absolutely terrifying, I burst into tears when the bacon came out, and my partner, who just *nearly* died, had to comfort *me*, because I was in absolute bits. I was an absolute mess but I’m obviously glad I saved his life!

Many years ago, before I did any First Aid training, I was at my local Jobcentre to sign on and there was a lady looking very unwell. JC staff were really uninterested. I got all righteous (as I tended to do at that age) and demanded they put her in a side room and find a First Aider. After what seemed like ages some (still uninterested) staff member came along and said there were no First Aiders on the premises and was about to walk away, and I yelled at them to phone a bloody ambulance. They did, ambo turned up and whisked the woman off.

About 3 or 4 months later the woman came knocking at the door with a huge bouquet and an equally huge box of chocolates, thanking me profusely for saving her life. She'd had a heart attack and was really unwell for a while in hospital, and was told that she would have died if I'd not got the ambo. Turned out she found out who I was because her daughter and I went to the same school. Knew her daughter but hadn't recognised her on the day because she looked so ill (recognised her when she came to the door, though).

Yes! It was a really hot day in summer last year and I was on the bus to Leeds. Bus driver was just sat for ages at these lights and I’m thinking eh what, why’s the bus not moving.

I had my earphones in and I was falling asleep, wanted to go home. I looked over the seats and saw this poor woman on the floor, unconscious. I took my earphones off and I could hear the driver on the phone to 999. He didn’t know where we were as it was a Wakefield bus, he was from Wakefield.

I took the phone, told the woman where we were, and then she told me to do chest compressions etc. so I did. She then started coughing and I rolled her over onto her side, and by that time the ambulance was there. I went into a panic because it was a bit much but I just did what I had to do and I was there to make sure she was alive.

I was so proud of myself man. I hope she’s okay.

On my lunch break at work, I found a homeless guy in an office doorway. Young, looked unconscious. I checked on him and he was barely conscious. Complained of stomach pain and said he hadn't had d***s or alcohol. People were just walking by. Called an ambulance and waited two hours for it to come.

Another guy stopped and waited with me. He was a retired social worker. We waited till the ambulance came and the older guy gave details as he wasn't working and I was.

Met the old guy randomly a few weeks later. Said the guy would have died without treatment. He was newly homeless from another area. Only in his 20s. The shelters couldn't take him in. He had some kind of stomach infection. He was recovering last I heard. I hope he found a place to stay. Not much older than my sons. Glad I did my part.

Multiple times but one sticks out for me

I work in ICU and a patient arrived on the unit awake but promptly arrested. I started CPR, we got them back but they were incredibly unstable. They were ventilated and sedated, on multiple cardiac medications and electrolytes. A week later I was back on shift and I stopped by their bed-space and it had a different person in it. Assumed they didn’t make it but spotted them in high dependency. They were sitting there happily having a cup of tea. They remembered me from just before they arrested when I apparently made them feel safe when they were scared. They thanked me for saving their life. Tears all round. Once of the proudest moments of my life.

Patient came into a pharmacy. It was clear he had cellulitis and needed antibiotics.

Patient went to his doctor (next door to us) and doctor told him to buy cream over the counter.

I went next door and demanded that Patient needs to see a GP urgently. GP came out and had an argument with me. After I clearly showed him it was cellulitis he finally reviewed the Patient.

GP was new and wasn't sure what to prescribe. I explained to him that he would need this if he has/hasn't got xyz (not going into the boring clinical stuff).

Patient was treated.

3 weeks later, the patient came back and gave myself and the staff flowers and chocolates for helping him.

We don't know if he would have died but could have easily done or even turned into to sepsis.

I work in the medical field so anything could be a life or death situation 🤣.

Stopped some drunk 18 year old kid throwing himself in front of the trams in Nottingham.

Little s**t repaid me by attempting to fight every group of passing lads that went by on a Friday night.

Was below freezing outside and the police took over an hour to come take him off my hands. Can't say I felt any warm glow from the situation I was just pissed off.

Only indirectly.

Used to manage a charity shop, had some volunteers with various levels of special needs both physical and mental.

One guy, big lad - about 6'5 and probably 35+st, was a great worker at basic tasks. He knew what to do once you showed him and would just chunter away at them until it was complete.

Dropped off by his dad one day, but didn't look happy. Asked him what was up, complained he wasn't feeling well, pushed a little for more specifics, complained his arm and chest were sore. Called his dad back out of the car and got him to take him to A&E.

Blood clot from the lung had broken loose.

My wife and I used to be carers, as in, we had two people with special needs living at our house. One morning, Christmas Eve as it happened, one of them came down for his breakfast. Now, he wasn't normally clumsy, but seemed a little off that morning. As he sat down, something clicked in my mind, and I asked him to raise both his arms. He couldn't hold his left arm up for more than a second.

Hmm, is he having a stroke?

So I called 999 and explained what was happening while my wife went out to wait for the ambulance. Ambulance came very quickly, like about 5 minutes. They stuck him on oxygen and confirmed it looked like a stroke.

Turned out it was indeed a stroke, but due to the system working as it should, he made a full recovery.

The funny thing was, when I was on the phone, I was calm, explained everything clearly and concisely, all of that. Don't panic, Capt. Mainwaring. But once we got to the hospital and the pressure was off, I called his sister to break the news and completely broke down. I could barely speak.

Right I’m going to tell a story that’s utterly surreal to me and no-one I’ve told seems to share the same bewilderment by it…

I was in the Peak District. A man in a 3 piece tweed suit and pocket watch ran past, said hello, and kept on going. Not the usual gear people wear in the Peaks but there you go.

Nearer the end of the day, after enjoying a completely empty hike with no-one else around, we got a bit lost up one of the hills so were along a ridge line still quite high up as the sun started to go down. On this ridge line there’s a bit of a boggy patch that you’re encouraged to avoid. As we redirected around it, we heard someone shouting.

In the distance, where the boggy patch is, someone was waist deep in the bog waving at us. We made our way over and it was the guy from earlier, in the suit. He couldn’t get out.

I had to carefully make my way into it, almost getting stuck myself. But I managed to get a decent footing and pull him out. He smiled, brushed off the excess mud, checked his pocket watch and ran off.

This was a late Autumn day so when that sun went down, it would’ve been freezing. And he would’ve been stuck up there in wet ground overnight, alone.

To this day, I believe I saved that man’s life. Whoever, or whatever, that man was.

I answer 999 ambulance calls. I took a call I. January, during the call, the patient stopped breathing. I gave instructions over the phone on how to give CPR and also upgraded the ambulance response. The patient lived and was discharged from the hospital.

My housemate was spaced-out, barely talking, awful headache, in bed all day, not even needing to get out to go to the toilet. Insisted he was fine, just needed to rest and be left alone. I got more and more worried, but the more I pressed him, the more he outright insisted that nothing was wrong and that if I called an ambulance I'd just make him more ill because it would interrupt the rest he needed. I eventually called an ambulance against his will after his speech got more incomprehensible...

He had severe sepsis. After a week in hospital he did fine, but I was horrified for a long time to think what would have happened had I respected his wishes.

I had an instinct my sleeping newborn baby ‘wasn’t quite right’ and insisted on waking him up and taking him immediately to hospital. 20 mins after arrival he went in to full cardiac arrest - turns out he was born with undiagnosed congenital heart disease. The doctors saved him from there, but without that maternal instinct he would never have woken up from his nap at home.