I was much taken by the recent news story of the young man called Jonny Benjamin who had intended to end his life on Waterloo Bridge six years ago this week, but was talked out of it by a passing stranger.

Jonny was just 20 years old and a victim of schizoaffective disorder, which had resulted in him reaching the decision to climb over the railings on the bridge and jump into the murky waters of the Thames. The stranger, whose name he never knew, told him that he had been a victim of depression himself but had come out the other side and suggested they should go and have a coffee and a chat. The normality of this image penetrated his pain, it seems, and he relented.

His life has turned around; he now works for a mental health charity and is an active campaigner in the cause of helping others whose plight he now so clearly understands.

Jonny is now attempting to find his Good Samaritan to thank him, saying: “His act of kindness changed my outlook on life and I have thought about him ever since. I want to find this man so I can thank him for what he did. If it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn’t be here today.”

I hope he finds him, if only because I suspect it would be rather uplifting for that person to know that those few moments in his life had had such a profound effect on another human being. It has certainly made me think that one should never miss the opportunity to make sure that those who have helped us along the way should know that we are aware and grateful. I once wrote to the English teacher whom I had revered at school and who, I told him, had inspired me with a love for our language that has never left me. His response was gratitude and surprise, as he insisted that he had only taught me for two terms out of the 21 I spent at my school in Manchester.

I suppose it indicated even more strongly the power of his effect on me as I have remembered him much more than the other teachers who had the dubious honour of instructing the junior me for longer than that with less lasting effect.

So thank you, anonymous stranger, for reading these inconsequential ramblings.