Woman took to Facebook to find the train driver who saved her life. Three years later, they got married

When we reach the rock bottom of our lives, we can only hope for someone to pull us out of it before everything goes dark. An NHS worker named Charlotte Lay was going through a rough mental state back in 2019, per BBC. Lay got ready for her night shift that day when she felt like she had reached her breaking point. That was when Lay arrived at the train station and decided to end it all by leaping on the tracks of West Yorkshire. Fortunately, a guardian angel in the form of a train driver named Dave, intervened right in time to save Lay's life. That was the beginning of a new life for Lay and a romantic relationship with her savior.

"I'd struggled with my mental health since my teens and I'd been in and out of the system since," Lay told BBC in an interview. She had blurry memories from that day at the train station but she could recall a train pulling up on the tracks. As she inched towards the tracks, a man stepped out of the train and decided to strike up a conversation with Lay. That man was Dave. He asked Lay if she was having a bad day while Lay stood there in a state of panic. The woman admitted that she was having a bad day and Dave asked if they could sit down and talk for a bit. Dave, who worked as a train operator for Northern, knelt in front of Lay as she sat down on a bench and introduced himself.

The duo continued talking until Lay was comfortable enough to get inside the train to be taken to safety. Their half-hour conversation led to Lay calming down enough to grab a cab, and she was taken to Skipton Station. She was left under the care of the police. After overcoming her distress, she took to her Facebook page and tried to find the train driver who saved her life. "I’d have understood if he didn’t want to hear from me, but I just wanted to thank him for giving me the time and for treating me like I was a human being," Lay mentioned. Soon, Dave and Lay reconnected as Dave shared how he felt it was his duty to ensure Lay's safety that day.

"It was just nice to be able to make that difference to somebody," Dave said. The two kept in touch and went for several coffee dates and eventually fell in love with each other. Dave and Lay tied the knot in 2022 when she was 22 weeks pregnant. But Dave had his own crisis as well. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2020. Lay insisted that he consult a doctor. A medical professional at the St. James' Hospital in Leeds told Dave that he wouldn't have been alive if he wasn't diagnosed with the cancer at the right moment. "Charlotte may say I saved her life, which I don’t know about but she saved my life as well," Dave admitted.

"We owe it to each other to be checking in with people around us," Lay, now a mom of three kids, added. "You don't have to offer life-changing advice or say anything profound. Just sitting down with a cuppa can make all the difference. Because of what I’ve been through, I had a duty to talk about it and I’m hoping it’s going to be a conversation starter." The couple also appeared on "This Morning" in 2024 and gave an important message to people struggling with mental health problems. "Life does get better," Lay told the hosts of the show. "If you take your life, you are not going to know if it gets better or not. There is all the support out there. There is help available. Just reach out to people."