Houseboat owners save suicidal woman from Thames (From Your Local Guardian)

Twickenham houseboat owners save suicidal woman from Thames

1:37pm Friday 5th October 2012 in Top Stories By Rachel Bishop and Hana Hausmeister

Houseboat residents saved a woman from the Thames today after an apparent suicide bid today.

The woman was sitting on the edge of the bank at Radnor Gardens at about 12.30pm saying she had taken a number of pills and did not want to live.

Nigel Frost, who lives on a houseboat next to the gardens in Cross Deep, saw the woman sitting on the bank and tried to help her.

Mr Frost said: “I spotted her on the bank. She started walking into the water until it came up to her waist.”

Mr Frost got into the water to help her.

He said: “Police said because of protocol I should move away from her, but I know what the river is like here.”

The woman then walked back to the bank and towards police, who helped her to an ambulance.

A man working on Mr Frost’s boat said: “At the moment the current is not too bad, but if she had gone any further it would have been up to her neck. If nobody was here she would have drowned.”

The woman was taken away in an ambulance.

A police helicopter also attended the scene.