DJ saves overdose man’s life on air

RADIO presenter Iain Lee saved a man’s life by talking to him on air for 30 minutes after he called in to say he had taken an overdose.

Lee kept the caller called Chris talking on talkRADIO while his producer Kath called 999.

The 45-year-old presenter, who was appeared in last year’s I’m A Celebrity..., hosts a show called Late Night Alternative.

He tweeted after the drama on Wednesday: “Tonight we took a call from a man who had taken an overdose. He was lying in a street in Plymouth, dying. We managed to get a description of what he looked like, work out where he was and send an ambulance.

“Long periods of silence where I thought he’d died. Intense and upsetting. Thanks for your kind words. I really hope he makes it.”

Later he said: “On the show we talk about mental health and then we go and talk about the Beach Boys – it goes from serious to light all the time. He (Chris) was on the phone and I couldn’t understand what he was saying. We get some calls from people with Parkinson’s Disease, with MS, different things.

“I said, ‘I can’t understand you mate’. And he said, ‘I have taken an overdose’. I have been suicidal in the past but I have never taken it as far as he did.

“He was in such a terrible state. Initially, he said he didn’t know where he was, what was going on, he said he wanted to die. I thought he had died because he would go silent for five or 10 minutes.”

He added: “I don’t know if I helped to save a life. I’m just a gob on a stick for hours on end.

“But I do know there are a lot of lonely people out there.”

After the drama, people took to social media to praise the DJ.

Elena Wolfson said: “You are amazing. Make sure you do some self care for yourself, that’s quite an emotional trauma for you.”