A WOMAN who battled to save the life of a badly injured man on a railway line has been hailed for her courage.

Reina Moreton tended the dying man after he landed on the line from a 40ft railway bridge in Kidderminster.

The 40-year-old acted as she drove to the cinema with her daughter in July.

Mrs Moreton said she spotted a bike leaning against a bridge at Husum Way.

"It just didn't feel right," she explained. "I turned round and, as I pulled up a police car, also drew up.

"I looked over the bridge and saw a chap on the line. He had bad head and back injuries and his arm was broken."

Mrs Moreton and the police officer scrambled through thick bushes and barbed wire to reach the stricken man. She tried to stem his bleeding and keep him warm.

"He was still conscious and I just kept talking to him," said Mrs Moreton, of Spennells, Kidderminster. "I assumed he'd jumped. There was no evidence for anything else. My heart was in my mouth, but I couldn't leave him."

A waiting train was then used to take the badly injured man to Kidderminster station.

"There was no way we could get him back to the ambulance through the bushes and wire, so we used the train," she said.

On the train, the patient transport carer carried out resuscitation after he stopped breathing.

A policemen then drove the ambulance to Kidderminster Hospital while a paramedic battled in vain to save the man's life.

Hereford and Worcester Ambulance Service NHS Trust's chief executive, Cliff Orme, has presented the mother-of-two with a certificate of commendation.

He said she had displayed such calmness and professionalism that the police officer thought she was a nurse.

Mrs Moreton now hopes to become an ambulance technician, despite being previously turned down.