When Tegan Badham fell onto a live Tube track, she surrendered herself to her bleak fate – until a stranger pulled her to safety.
The 22-year-old had 630 volts of electricity shoot through her body at Kings Cross station on a Sunday evening last summer.
And on BBC series Reunion Hotel next week, Tegan gets the chance to thank her saviour, Anthony Smith.
She said: “I had been desperate to find him afterwards but leading up to the meeting, I was so nervous.
“I knew whatever I said would never be enough to thank him for what he’d done for me.”
It all started when Tegan, a beautician from Cwmbran in south Wales, had travelled to London with her friend to see Nicki Minaj at the Wireless Festival at London’s Finsbury Park last July.
She recalls: “My friend was walking ahead of me, and I just remember as we reached the platform stumbling. And then suddenly I was on the track.
“I stood up and saw that in between the track and the platform was a bar, so I put my hands on it thinking I could push myself out.”
But it sent a surge of electricity shooting through her body. “I felt my whole body vibrating like it was moving by itself while I was frozen in the same position.
“It was the strangest, most terrifying sensation. I still had my hands on the bar because I couldn’t move them. I was stuck to the current. Then I heard people screaming that a train was coming.
“I looked down the tunnel and saw the reflection of the train lights and then turned to see a man on the platform with his hand outstretched.”
The next thing Tegan remembers is being back on the platform.
“The man had pulled me out, and I sat on the floor; my head was down, and I was just crying, trying to figure out what was going on.
“Then I looked up, the train had gone and so had the man.”
Tegan was taken to hospital for treatment.
“In the ambulance, I could feel my skin sticking to my dress so I couldn’t lie down,” she said. “As well the pain of the burning flesh I could smell it… it was sickening.”
Tegan was treated for burns and given painkillers before discharging herself.
“I just wanted to be back home in Wales with my mum and dad,” she says.
“It was only then I thought about the man on the platform and that he saved my life and I had to find him.”
Tegan and her family put out social media posts trying to track him down and BBC producers helped.
The pair were introduced to each other by TV presenter Alex Jones at Iscoyd Park hotel in north Wales.
“When I saw Anthony, he felt like somebody I already knew so it was really comfortable,” Tegan said.
“We hugged. I was still nervous but I made lots of jokes and we got on really well.
“I thought he had taken my hand but Anthony told me had pulled out by wrapping his arms around me and carrying me out.
“He said that I was in shock, and he left me with my friend and tube staff on the platform. It sounded like he had been in shock too.”
Hotel developer Anthony, 31, and his friends had been on a night out when they saw Tegan fall onto the track.
The Australian, who now lives in North London, said: “Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tegan lose her footing and stumble onto the track. She was calling out for help.
“I saw on the board the train was one minute away and there was a moment of, ‘What do I do?’
“And then I crouched down and said, ‘Give me your hand’.
“I heard the train coming down the track so I grabbed her under the armpits and pulled her onto the platform.
“Looking back, I can see why I may have put myself in danger and that is scary, but at the time, I didn’t think about the electric current on the track.
“Afterwards, I thought about Tegan a lot so I was really happy to hear she wanted to meet.
“We both joked about how terrible we looked - we were both covered in soot and she has grazes and marks and burns and said her expensive hair extensions had been fried!
“She showed me a tattoo of her lightning bolt as a reminder of the day.
“Tegan and I talked about how there could have been a danger she could have electrocuted me by me touching her or I could have fallen onto the track with her, but the main thing is that our story had a happy ending, and that’s what we should focus on and celebrate.”
* Reunion Hotel, Thursday 6 April at 8pm on BBC Two, BBC One Wales and iPlayer
