A MAN from Nova Scotia, in Canada, who nearly took his own life as a teen, has reconnected with the random stranger who pulled him from the brink 12 years ago.

    Mark Henick, now 27, took to social media in late January to search for his rescuer. Just one day later, he connected with youth care worker Mike Richey — the man who happened to be driving on the Cape Breton overpass where Henick nearly threw his life away in 2002.

    Now, Henick — who has since become a mental health advocate — has shared the first letter he received from his rescuer in a touching YouTube video he hopes will serve to inspire others who have lost hope.

    “This is the first time I’ve had any contact with this person since [that night],” Henick said in his video, which he posted Jan. 30.

    In Richey’s letter, he revealed to Henick that he has been starting his career helping at-risk youths.

    As he drove to a late shift, Richey saw 15-year-old Henick on the overpass.

    “I remember there were no other cars on the road or anyone else around,” his letter reads. “I could see what appeared to be a person on the opposite side of the railing, looking down.”

    Richey quickly told a gas station attendant to call the cops, and then returned to Henick. So as not to startle the troubled teen, Henick “kept things light.”

    “I just wanted him to know that I was there... I wasn’t there to try to fix things for him or anything like that, I wanted him to know that no matter what, I’m not going anywhere. I’m right behind you.”

    A crowd gathered as the two talked. Someone among the crowd told Henick to jump. He soon let go.

    “As [Henick] leaned forward into nothing, I reached out and put my arm around his chest,” wrote Richey.

    With the help of a police officer who’d showed up, they pulled Henick to safety. And Richey says his long arduous road to recovery began that day.

    Weeks before reaching out on social media to find his rescuer, Henick, who now works for the Ontario division of the Canadian Mental Health Association, reported the Toronto Star – he had given a TED Talk in which he described the night in 2002.

    Richey, by coincidence, had seen the talk and had already written the letter when he realized Henick was searching for him.

    Now the two men have exchanged several correspondences and plan to meet sometime in the future.

    (SD-Agencies)