A Darlington man working as conductor has been praised after he helped save a woman’s life on a train.

Liam King, 27, reacted quickly to help a customer who had fallen ill and lost consciousness on a service in September.

The 27-year-old, who works for Northern trains, alerted the driver and contacted the emergency services, before performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the woman. 

He managed to revive her, but she stopped breathing again so he resumed CPR until the paramedics got on the train at Middlesbrough station.

“I was just glad I could do my bit and she was all right,” he said.

(Image: Northern)

“I knew CPR because I had been on a training course with my old job. It’s one of those things you never think you’re going to have to use but it obviously came in handy. 

“I remained pretty calm when it was happening but afterwards I took a step back and realised what happened.

“Her partner was on the train a few weeks ago. He explained what happened and put her on the phone so she could thank me.” 

After the incident, Mr King, who has worked for Northern for four years, was nominated for a Life Saver Award in the 2024 RailStaff Awards.

“It was nice to get some recognition for what happened. But the main thing is she’s okay,” he said.

He will find out if he has won during the awards ceremony in Birmingham on Thursday, November 28.

Jason Wade, regional director for Northern, said: “We’re incredibly proud of Liam for going above and beyond to help this customer.

“Incidents like this show that our staff are not just there to check tickets, they help and protect millions of passengers every year and deal with a range of difficult situations.”

Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.