A rail worker has been commended for helping to save her colleague's life.

Lauren Forrestal, from Chatham, worked together with another co-worker to save the life of Paul Osborne, who suffered a stroke.

Lauren and her colleague Victoria Sweeney, from Bermondsey, were recognised as 'Lifesavers' in the Outstanding Personal Contribution category at the National Rail Awards.

Both women are Revenue Protection officers for Southeastern based at London Bridge station.

The incident happened during the first lockdown of 2020 when Victoria, who was shielding at the time, received a jumbled text from Paul saying he thought he’d suffered a stroke.

Victoria checked to see if he had made it to work and when she discovered he hadn’t, Lauren was called as she lived near Paul.

Lauren leapt into action, calling an ambulance and heading straight to Paul’s home. She made it there before the paramedics so took him to Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury where she was advised that thanks to her swift response, he would recover.

The 34-year-old recalls the panic and despair when it all happened.

She said: "While driving to Paul's I was panicking as I was expecting the worst. Paul never complained about anything so for him to text Vicky that morning albeit extremely jumbled meant he thought he was in trouble.

"I was worrying about how I would find him, and what I would do. It was an extremely stressful car journey with lots of tears whilst on the phone to Vicky. The car journey to his house took an hour but it felt like it was taking forever.

"When I arrived at the address, all the lights were out, no answer at the door and I couldn't hear his mobile ringing.

"I started banging on his front door, then I looked over the fence to see if I could get around the back.

"At this point I didn't know what to do, and called my manager back, he said he would call 999 again and see if an ambulance had picked Paul up, but within minutes of me making the call to my manager, Paul came from down a side alley way by his home. He couldn't speak, and I could see he was struggling.

"I ran up the stairs to him to give him a hug, and he tried to point me to walk back down the alleyway, but I told him no and took his arm and walked him to where my car was parked. At this point I felt a sigh of relief that I had got to Paul.

"I got him in my car and drove him straight to Pembury. I was crying but trying to not let him see. I then started to panic as I didn't have any way to contact his mum.

"Once the initial tests had been completed, and the nurse explained to me what was going on, I felt much better that I had got to him in time.

"The nurse said that thanks to me getting him there, they would be able to treat him, and he would be able to make some form of a recovery. I couldn't imagine life without our 'Uncle Paul' in it."

Both Victoria and Lauren continued to support each other and Paul throughout his hospital stay, as well as with medical appointments and everyday necessities for many months afterwards.

Lauren and Paul met back in 2010 when she started at Southeastern. By 2011 she was fondly calling him 'Uncle Paul'.

"Working on the railway, your team become part of your family," she said.

"Paul is definitely part of my family and he is just an amazing friend to everyone.

"He has been such a big part of my life for 12 years, and I know our friendship will last a lifetime. Myself and Vicky are like the daughters he never had."

Paul said he is forever grateful to Lauren and Victoria, and added: "Our friendship has always been strong and continues to be that way. I shall be forever in my girls’ debt. They are my angels – my guardian angels – I love them to bits.

"I thought I was checking out and going to meet my maker sooner than I expected – not a pleasant prospect."

Both women said they were not expecting to receive the award.

Lauren commented: "I'm honoured to have won the lifesaver award. We found out in June we had been nominated and shortlisted, which for me was a shock.

"Even on the night, seeing all of the other nominations on the screen I didn't expect to win anything.

"We had a chat with our managing director and we said it was an achievement in itself and an honour for our nomination. And not long after we were on stage accepting our award.

"I still don't think it has sunk in that we actually won. In all honesty, we didn't do what we did that day for awards, we did it because of our love and friendship for Paul."