Heroic Owen Jeffers, 19, was celebrating his girlfriend’s birthday in York when he noticed a man behaving unusually on the Ouse Bridge.
Concerned for his safety, the inspiring teenager managed to talk the man down from the edge.
His efforts were recognised at the prestigious Yorkshire Young Achievers Awards on November 16 night, when he picked up the prize for ‘Unsung Hero’ in a glitzy ceremony at the Leeds United Centenary Pavilion at Elland Road.
Concerned for his safety, the inspiring teenager managed to talk the man down from the edge.
His efforts were recognised at the prestigious Yorkshire Young Achievers Awards on November 16 night, when he picked up the prize for ‘Unsung Hero’ in a glitzy ceremony at the Leeds United Centenary Pavilion at Elland Road.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 June of this year. Now he'd been enjoying a night out in York with his girlfriend and
00:05 a couple of friends when they noticed a man behaving funny and strangely on Euse Bridge
00:10 near the city centre on Euse Bridge. As they watched, the man climbed onto the bridge,
00:15 parapet and stood up. Now our winner and one of the girls in the group were concerned that
00:21 the man was going to jump and they walked back to the centre of the bridge to ask if
00:26 he was okay. The man was very dismissive at first but as his actions became increasingly
00:32 worrying, our winner knew that he had to intervene and despite there being plenty of other people
00:39 on the bridge, he did and the distressed man eventually agreed to come down from the wall
00:45 if our winner took his hand, which was a particularly terrifying moment for our winner who didn't
00:51 know if he might get pulled into the river Euse himself. Now he continued to talk to
00:56 the man, finding out that he had served in the army and he was having a relationship
01:01 crisis before surreptitiously signalling to a passing police van that help was required
01:08 and although the police van initially drove off, two officers - you know, he did come
01:14 back in another form. That sounds terrible, doesn't it? The police drove off but they
01:19 did come back on foot five minutes later and our winner was able to confirm the need for
01:24 assistance without alerting the distressed man. So one of the officers then took over
01:30 the care of the man and our winner was then able to brief the other on exactly what had
01:34 been happening and the police were able to take that man away to safety. Now, that's
01:40 an amazing feat, but when our winner is not saving lives, he enjoys acting and that's
01:45 a skill that he definitely brought into play that night, using it to appear calm and confident
01:51 when he definitely felt anything but. And he's also a dancer. He's appeared in both
01:56 stage and dance productions and is currently studying for a degree in film and television
02:01 at Sheffield Hallam University. And, which might explain the film that we've just seen
02:07 on the walls behind us, he loves cars. All cars. So we took the opportunity to take him
02:14 for a special spin on the foggiest day in October. That's what you were looking at
02:19 there if you were wondering what all that was about. So ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure
02:23 you will agree, the courage shown by this teenager in a situation which could have had
02:30 a very tragic outcome makes him an amazing and very worthy winner. Give a massive round
02:38 of applause for this very courageous young man. Ladies and gentlemen, our winner of the
02:43 2023 Unsung Hero title is Owen Jeffers.
02:49 [Applause]
02:55 [Music]
03:19 [Applause]
03:21 I just wanted to ask you, what was it like, what was that moment like for you? To have
03:27 the courage to look after that for a moment. Terrifying. It was really, really scary. But
03:33 I just had to, on the face, sober up and just go straight there and just try and help him
03:39 out because it looked like he was having a really rough time and it was really confusing
03:43 because everyone else was just passing by. I felt like I just had to step in and do
03:47 something. It was really hard. Well done, you did it and that's an incredible achievement.
03:53 Well done, congratulations to our Unsung Hero.
03:57 [Applause]