London Underground: 'Reunited with hero who saved me from death'
- Published
Tegan and Anthony first met after he saved her from "certain death"
Tegan Badham had only seen Anthony Smith once before - when he heroically dragged her from an oncoming Tube train after she slipped on to a live track.
While being electrocuted by 630 volts, Tegan was "saved from death" by her £40 rubber boots and the man who reached off the platform to pull her to safety.
Seconds later the London Underground train ran into the station. As Tegan received help, Anthony left.
Now after an online appeal, Tegan, 22, has been reunited with her "lifesaver".
"I can't go through my days without not thanking him for doing such a heroic thing," said beautician Tegan.
"If he wasn't there... I would be dead."
"It's very strange to meet someone in that position," said Anthony, a 31-year-old hotel developer from London.
How were Tegan and Anthony reunited?
Alex Jones' new BBC TV show Reunion Hotel helped bring the pair together.
Anthony Smith was reunited with Tegan Badham thanks to Alex Jones' Reunion Hotel
After meeting they hugged and Tegan showed off a new lightning bolt tattoo on her lower left arm.
"It's amazing to meet you," she said. "I just want to give you a cwtch, I don't know what to say but thank you - I'm alive."
What happened?
Tegan travelled from Cwmbran in south Wales to London to see Nicki Minaj performing at Wireless Festival on 10 July last year.
Tegan was treated at hospital in London for burns and a possible chipped bone in her back
While walking along the Victoria Line platform at Kings Cross St Pancras Tube station at 18:00 she "stumbled" on to the live track, with a 200-tonne train only moments away.
"As I tried to pull myself up, the electric goes through me," she recalled.
"Think of cramp in your leg when it really hurts, but imagine that in your whole body.
"I could hear people shouting 'the train is coming, the train is coming' - it was crazy.
"I saw someone on the platform. When I saw the lights of the train, I just looked at him because I didn't want to see that train."
Tegan Badham was on her first trip away without her parents when the incident happened
She remembered the man saying "give me your hands" and for a split second the current stopping.
"I got my one hand up and he pulled me out."
Filmed at Iscoyd Park hotel in north Wales, the programme is based on a S4C original Gwesty Aduniad.
The five-part series starts on Thursday, 6 April on BBC One Wales and BBC Two and will be available on BBC iPlayer.
Anthony, originally from Sydney in Australia, told Tegan on Reunion Hotel: "I wouldn't call myself a hero.
"I just saw you in there and thought 'person in hole, get person out of hole otherwise train is coming'.
"I'm not a strong guy physically, it was just instinctive that I needed to do something - I just crouched down and luckily it worked out.
"The first thing you said to me when I pulled you up was 'get my phone' - and I replied 'mate, there's a train on top of your phone right now'."
After Anthony pulled Tegan from the track she was helped by security and station staff.
Paramedics then took her to London's St Thomas' Hospital for treatment to her electric burns.
But, in that frantic aftermath and within a minute of saving Tegan's life, Anthony, who lives in the London suburb of Camden, hopped on his train and left her with the professionals.
"I couldn't remember a lot about him," Tegan recalled.
"When I came up on to the platform, I put my head in my knees and I was just crying because I was in shock. Then when I looked up, he'd gone."
Tegan was on her way to London's Wireless Festival when the incident happened
Anthony said: "I regret leaving because it makes no sense from a first aid point of view or a human-to-human point of view - you should stay with someone who has just had an incident like that."
Tegan said she also owed gratitude to her £40 Pretty Little Thing rubber boots which she said also helped save her life.
"Paramedics said if I didn't have rubber boots on I most probably would have died," she said.
"The reunion was amazing... I can't believe we found him. That closure is there."
- Published21 July 2022
