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A call handler has shared the moments when she realised she was taking the first call for the Huntingdon train stabbing where a 32 year old man attempted to murder ten people last November. Describing that experience as ‘terrifying,’ last night she received a national award for her calm bravery as the incident unfolded that day.
Nicole works for East of England Ambulance Service and was just weeks into her role as a control room operator when she received the first 999 call from a passenger on the train where a mass stabbing incident was taking place.
Her cool, calm bravery was recognised at this year’s Control Room Awards along with the call handlers at the British Transport Police team based in Birmingham. The Judges Award wrapped up the evening where teams and individuals from across the emergency services celebrated the heroes at the heart of the control room.
Nicole said it was lovely to receive the award. She told Awards host Ben Hawkins that she felt terrified when she picked up the call on 1 November last year. “You don’t expect to receive a call like that ever in your career.” So early in her role at EMAS, Nicole said her mentor was “incredible” and got her through the challenging call that alerted the emergency services to a major incident on the train from Doncaster to London that day.
Shazia’s team at British Transport Police responded to the incident that day. She said she was “really proud” to be at the awards ceremony with them and was delighted to meet Nicole, adding it was unusual to meet call handlers from another service. “It was a massive team response and multi-agency working at it’s best,” added Ben as he interviewed the award winners after the ceremony.
Kicking off the celebrations in Hull, Control Room Awards founder Mike Isherwood said: “We celebrate the people the public will probably never meet.” He described call handlers as unsung heroes and this was reinforced by Sara McDougalll from Motorola Solutions, the headline sponsor of the awards. She gave a passionate and empathetic keynote speech drawing on her own years of experience in the control room at Thames Valley Police. She said: “Being a call handler takes a level of resilience, bravery and emotional intelligence that very few people in this world have; it is an invisible level of courage.”
Anthony Williams appeared in court yesterday to face ten charges of attempted murder on the LNER train from Doncaster in November 2025 and pleaded not guilty.
Motorola Solutions is a premier partner at The Emergency Tech Show 2026, taking place from 16-17 September at the NEC in Birmingham. You can find them on Stand B80. Register here.
