KEY POINTS:
As Newstalk ZB host Leighton Smith spoke to a suicidal woman over the airwaves there was one thing going through his mind - finding out exactly where she was, so he could get her some help.
The veteran broadcaster took the call from the distressed woman named Clare just before 10am yesterday.
Clare said she had been fighting for a year and a half to get her son back from her husband but she had given up. She had taken medication and was lying down in her car but was reluctant to tell Smith where she was.
"The trouble is if I tell you, all you are going to do is make my life go on and I can't, I can't let it go on ... It's just too hard, it's too awful," she said.
Smith replied: "It might seem that way at the moment but tomorrow might be a different day altogether. Clare, tell me what you can see out of the car."
Smith told the Herald he had fielded calls from upset people before, but never anything as serious as this.
As the phone call progressed, Clare became more upset but Smith continued talking to her, while his producer spoke with emergency services, who tried to trace the cellphone call in order to find her location.
At one stage Smith told her: "Sweetie, listen to me ... If you don't let me help you, you will not see your boy again and he won't see you again and for him not to see you again maybe would be a terrible thing."
The talkback host managed to find out that Clare was in a light-grey car near the Whenuapai airfield, which prompted about 20 listeners to head there to help - some from near the city centre.
One of them was Melissa Phillips, who was driving through Hobsonville.
"I just pulled over and was kinda begging that she would tell you where she was," she later told Smith, who had by that stage transferred the call to his producer.
Last night, Mrs Phillips told the Herald: "I just think it's amazing that so many people came to help and it affected so many of them. All of us were really upset by it but everybody was just so desperate to help her. I really hope she is OK."
Elizabeth Davis heard the call while watching planes at the airport with her husband and grandson.
"We parked ... close to a grey BMW which looked driverless ... My husband decided to drive past the car to get a better view. There was a person with the driver's seat down and we could see an arm moving and realised it was Clare."
Mrs Davis ran to the car just as Mrs Phillips arrived.
"Others were pulling up and a man used Melissa's fire extinguisher to break into the car," said Mrs Davis.
"A registered nurse arrived and attended to Clare while I took Clare's mobile and carried on with the conversation to Leighton's producer."
Clare, who was still conscious, was taken to Waitakere Hospital in a moderate condition.
