Station assistant honoured for helping runaway children to safety

Kayode (“Kay”) Awote, was honoured by his company this week on Brew Monday – a campaign by Samaritans to improve mental health on ‘Blue Monday’, often the toughest day of the year.

Mr Awote, 61, of Addington Village, was recognised by Govia Thameslink Railway for helping two vulnerable people to safety, and the girls who had run away from home because their parents were arguing.

The little children were on their own and wearing rucksacks at a station, he noticed. “It was obvious something was wrong,” he said. “I persuaded them to sit in my kiosk on the platform, and I played some music for them on my phone to keep them occupied while I phoned the police and waited for them to arrive.

“With the police on the way, I chatted with them and they told me they were going to their auntie’s house, which was four stations up the line. They had climbed out of a window to leave home because their mother and father were fighting. “

They left quite happily with the police, who took them home. But their sad situation affected me a lot.”

He also held back a sad young man in March. Mr Awote was alerted when the audibly distressed pedestrian walked past the ticket office window on the platform.

The station assistant said: “I kept an eye on him with the station CCTV to see him safely on to the next train, but he didn’t get on. He seemed very upset and possibly a bit tipsy, so I decided to go and have a chat.

“Before I got very near he suddenly put himself in a very dangerous place. I caught his attention and managed to persuade him to stop and get him to tell me why he was so upset.

“I told him I would get help for him and called the police, who were able to calm him down some more and get him to move to safety.”

He also had to pull back a crying woman who leapt towards the platform as soon as he turned his back.