Hello I'm Andrew Peach. Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

In BBC OS conversations we bring people together to share their experiences.

This time conversations with someone who's having suicidal thoughts.

In today's edition, our guests share their experiences of the depths and isolation that poor mental health can lead you into,

and how the intervention of a stranger who takes the time and shows the courage to talk

can turn a situation around.

What I've noticed is the most potent medicine that I can give somebody is a caring heart and a hug in her times of trial. You might have seen the video of the rock legend John Bon Jovey the other day.

He's seen helping a woman in distress who was on the

ledge of a bridge in Nashville in the US. He carefully walks towards her, waves and begins to talk

to her. Eventually the woman climbs off the ledge and Bon Jovey and

Bonsauve gives her a hug.

The local police chief praised his action saying,

it takes all of us to help keep each other safe.

And it's that which is the inspiration for today's edition. And just

to say that while our conversations are ultimately uplifting, they do deal with issues around

suicide and suicidal thinking.

So we've been hearing from people who know what it feels like to be in a situation similar

to the one involving Bon Jovi and the woman he talked to on that bridge from both perspectives of the experience.

For our first conversation we go back nearly 20 years to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Kevin Berthier was at the time a young man who was deeply

unhappy about his life. And Kevin Briggs was a California Highway Patrol officer who just

happened to be nearby.

Talking to my colleague Kruper Padhi, Kevin Berthier began by describing the state of his mind on that day.

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