By Sarah Junkin
The Eagle
A Cochrane man is the recipient of the highest award the Canadian Red Cross can bestow on a citizen for a heroic act involving first aid training.
CP Rail train conductor Mark Bretherton, 43, said he’s embarrassed by the attention, but he was honoured Sept. 13 with the prestigious Red Cross Rescuer award for saving the life of a man who lurched onto train tracks about three miles west of Cochrane.
Bretherton said he watched in horror as the man in his 60s stood by the train tracks on a foggy, wet night last January.
“You get this really sick feeling,” he said. “I watched as he took a forward step and I said, ‘I think he just killed himself.’”
Bretherton and locomotive engineer Paul Eyles stopped the train and Bretherton walked back to look for the man.
“Basically, I was looking for body parts,” he said. “But I found a whole body curled up in the fetal position. He was very cold, hypothermic — if we did anything, we saved him from hypothermia. He’s a pretty lucky guy.”
Bretherton covered the man with his parka and gave him his hat and gloves.
Paramedics were brought in from Cochrane on a separate train.
Bretherton is humble about the rescue and admits to being “mortified” by all the attention.
“A Red Cross official commended me on what I did, and I said, ‘What was the alternative? I couldn’t just leave him there!’”
His colleague Eyles opted not to attend the Red Cross ceremony.
“He thought he didn’t do enough, but he did, he did a lot,” said Bretherton.
He received a certificate that he said isn’t his alone.
“Basically, I was accepting the award on behalf of everyone at work,” he said.

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