A selfless Fife model stopped mid photoshoot to save the life of a woman who was drowning in the Thames.
Mum of two Natalie Harrison from Rosyth jumped into action, dangling herself over the edge of a wall to prevent the woman from disappearing underwater.
When a lifeboat crew arrived, they found Ms Harrison desperately gripping on to the woman.
The 36-year-old said: “All I thought was ‘I can’t let her drown’. I just went into autopilot. I just can’t believe it, it was like fate.”
At first, Ms Harrison tried to throw a life ring to the woman, but it missed her.
She said: “So I jumped over the side of the pier, grabbed onto the side and dangled myself down until my feet were on this chain, hanging into the water, and I managed to get my arm round this wire rope around the top and I hung on to that, and got her to grab onto the actual life ring.”
The drama unfolded on Monday July 25 at London’s Bankside Pier, which is near Shakespeare’s Globe theatre.
Ms Harrison was posing for shots with photographer James Bignell when her daughter spotted a head bobbing past.
The 36-year-old carried out the heroic rescue wearing a wig and full make up.
“The last time me and James met up we did an amazing shoot at the South Bank so we thought we’d go back,” she said.
“We went to the end of the pier to sit down and wait for the boat, and the water looked horrendous, it was really choppy.
“James said ‘if anyone ended up in there they’d be a goner’ and I was agreeing with him.
“Then we were talking about all the diseases in the Thames.
“So we were just sitting there chatting, when all of a sudden we heard this ‘help, help.’
“My daughter thought she saw a child, just literally a head, rushing past in the water, so me and James ran to the side.
“He pulled open the container with a life ring inside and chucked it to her but it completely missed her.
“I went to toss it at her and I just realised it was not going to go near her.
“I was shouting at her ‘come on, you can do this.”
The drowning woman, believed to be aged in her twenties, was “clearly struggling” and had turned a “dreadful colour”, coughing and spluttering as the harsh current tried to pull her under the pier.
Ms Harrison said: “She managed to hook her arm around the chain I was physically standing on, so I grabbed her by her top.
“I was in a really dreadful position – I still don’t know how I did it.
“I had to lean in further, and I thought ‘If I let go, I’m in there too’.”
The former nurse, who now works as a children’s therapeutic support worker, had lost the feeling in her hands as she continued her efforts to save the woman.
After the casualty let go of the rope, she held on to her by her clothing.
She said: “I thought ‘I need to get hold of her bra strap’ because if her head comes out of the top, she was going to go.
“But I still had hold of her top and thank god, just at that moment the RNLI turned up – they’re angels.
“She’d completely let go, so what we had was me hanging on to the pier, my hand round her top and bra strap, dangling in a horrendous position.
“The RNLI reached right forward and grabbed her.
“Apparently she was unconscious when they’d hauled her into the boat.
“I don’t know how I managed to hold on, but it feels like I’ve been to the gym and done three rounds with Mike Tyson.”
Steve King, full time lifeboat helmsman at Tower RNLI lifeboat station, said if it were not for her actions, the woman in the river may not have survived.
He described what she did as “a risky, but utterly selfless and incredible act of public service.”
The RNLI called an ambulance who met them at their station in Waterloo Bridge and she was taken to the casualty care room.
Mr King said: “As a general rule, the RNLI doesn’t encourage what Natalie did. If people enter the river or sea to try to rescue others they risk getting into difficulty themselves, which exacerbates the rescue situation for emergency services. We normally advise people to raise the alarm and call the Coastguard.
“That said, there’s no denying what she did was utterly selfless, an incredible act of public service. I believe she was on holiday in London and was nearby when she saw the woman in the water, and acted immediately to help.
“The woman in the river was vulnerable and me and my fellow lifeboat crew members feel Natalie’s brave actions may well have saved that woman’s life.”
Ms Harrison is mum to Naomi, 16, and Lucas, 14. She also does humanitarian work, helping refugees, and enjoys modelling as a hobby.
