Youngsters Devonte Cafferkey, 13, and Sammy Farah, 14, ran to hold onto the man sitting over the edge of an A10 overpass in Waltham Cross on Thursday (September 21) with a rope around his neck while friend Shawn Young, 12, called for help.
While trying to restrain him and talk him out of jumping, the man passed his mobile to the boys saying “if it rings, don’t answer it”.
The road in Waltham Cross was closed in both directions as a precaution and the man was taken to hospital at around 6.20pm, after the boys held on long enough for help to arrive.
Shawn’s mum, Carol, said the boys managed to do what many adults might not have been able to.
“They were coming from school and loitering around, Shawn was telling them to hurry up,” said the 52-year-old.
“If they had been messing around a bit longer, who knows what they would have come and met instead?
“I feel like they were meant to be there to help him.
"Shawn told me what happened when he came home. I let him finish the whole story and the whole way through I was smiling because there was nothing I could add to it.
"Adults might have messed that up, but what they did was textbook.”
