A Little Lever man has been given a police award after talking someone down from a motorway bridge.

Dale Peters runs his own company – LED Glow Party Hire – which hires out party tents.

However, that was the last thing on his mind on one night in April, when he spotted a man about to jump from a bridge on to the busy M61 motorway below.

Dale said: “We were driving on a Sunday and I was in the car with my missus and my two young boys, and I we drove over that bridge I just saw it instantly, to my right – I just knew it was a lad on the wrong side of the railings.”

Dale then ‘legged it’ towards the man, who he says appeared to in his 30s, while his wife phoned the police and stayed with their two children, aged seven and two.

Sign up to our newsletters to get the latest stories sent straight to your inbox.

He spoke with the man, asking him if he could get closer and closer, before offering to hold his hand.

Dale said: “I could feel him shaking – I carry on talking to him, I didn’t want to ask him why he was there and what was up with him, I was just letting him know I was there, basically.”

Eventually other bystanders saw what was happening and joined Dale as he tried to get the man to come to the right side of the barriers.

Dale added: “I said, ‘we’re not going to pull you over, because that won’t really achieve anything – you need to come over yourself,’ and he did; as soon as he got over, he kind of broke down, this young lad.

“I started really shaking at this point. It was crazy, I’ve never felt anything like that, it must have been adrenaline – but my whole body was shaking like mad.”

Then, police turned up – and they were shocked to find that the man had already been helped down.

“They [the police officer] went ‘that’s incredible, no-one does that’,” Dale said.

Now, Dale has been awarded the Salford District Commanders’ Award by GMP.

Follow The Bolton News on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), and TikTok.

Chief inspector Darren Whitehead, from GMP’s Salford district, presented the award.

The chief inspector said: “On that day in April, Dale’s action undoubtedly saved the man’s life.

“His quick and compassionate actions, as we received the call about a concern for the welfare meant he was a true good Samaritan.

“It was only right we formally recognised his contribution as a member of the public going above and beyond of what is expected, acting in a truly selfless manner in front of his own family.

“We are proud to serve our Salford community on a daily basis to keep them safe and people like Dale give us comfort that there are also others out there equally committed to helping others.”

Now, Dale is hoping others will act.

Dale said: “If you’re one of those people who think that you could help and you’re a good talker, and you’re a good listener, just do what you can – it’s different for everyone.

“It was spur at the moment for me, as soon as I saw him on that bridge I knew I was stopping, whereas I totally understand that if someone else saw that they’d be like ‘no, I don’t want to see that, drive past drive past’ – I understand that as well.

“In my head I thought if there’s anything I can do to stop him from doing it, and thankfully for me it worked.”

He added: “We should all be talking to each other if there’s not something wrong with us, just in general – I should be phoning my mates up just in general, seeing how they’re doing – not because I need to talk to them, they might need to talk to me.

“We get home, we put the telly on, we’re sat on our phones, on Facebook, on social media and we zone out – when on our phones we’ve got all those contacts of mates you met at college, at uni, at school – some people we’ve not spoken to in ages, they might be feeling really crap at that time, and just that one phone call from you saying ‘how’s it going’ could be all it takes.”

If you have a story, I cover the whole borough of Bolton. Please get in touch at jack.fifield@newsquest.co.uk.