Mark Nixon

Said the following about Lucy Kitching:

“Fatalities are an extremely distressing situation for anyone to find themselves in, often leading to train crew requiring extensive return to work programmes to deal with the emotional stress involved. Working alongside the safety team, we wanted to make a difference in the way we approach fatalities, and instead of waiting for them to happen we wanted to help make a difference prior to these situations arising.

During 2015 we have worked with the Samaritan’s charity, who offered group training to front line staff and management who may find themselves dealing with these situations, or being able to make a difference beforehand if they experience suspicious behaviour. As the operations delivery manager in South and East Yorkshire it was my responsibility to ensure as many of my staff were involved in the training, without having an impact on delivering our train plan. Working alongside Lucy we were able to give a large number of our front line crew the opportunity to attend the course, with Lucy being instrumental in encouraging and organising front line staff when attending the training day.

Lucy also takes the time to meet our front line train crew, and travels to our out stations to hold Samaritan’s days to raise public awareness of the charity and the hard work involved in creating a safe railway for all. These days also offer the opportunity for anyone involved in these events to have a chat, and request any further help.

Without Lucy’s hard work we wouldn’t have seen the increase in suicide preventions at Northern Rail that we are currently seeing, I would like to thank her for her help throughout and hope we can continue to deliver positive results.“