- A Florida woman recently reconnected with the man who helped save her life during a suicide attempt when they were both teens
- Although Ashlee Wright lost touch with him afterwards, nearly two decades later they got back in touch thanks to a TikTok video she made about how he saved her life
- “I don’t think there’s enough words I could say to ever thank him enough,” she tells PEOPLE
A Florida woman never thought she would ever reconnect with the man who saved her life when they were teenagers. But thanks to a TikTok trend, that all changed.
Ashlee Wright was 13 years old when her friend Rand Looper called poison control after realizing she had ingested a potentially-deadly substance during a suicide attempt.
The Florida woman, 32, tells PEOPLE they lost touch afterwards, but nearly two decades later, Wright reconnected with Looper and his family after posting a TikTok video about her friend’s heroics.
“He gave me my life. I don’t think there’s enough words I could say to ever thank him enough,” she says. “It seems so inadequate to say thank you. … I’m really grateful for him.”
Wright posted the now-viral video on Monday, Jan. 6 after being inspired by a song — “Call Your Mom” by Noah Kahan — that was trending on the app.
Many people used the sound to recall a moment when someone called their mom during a pivotal moment in their life. But Wright’s was a bit different. “He didn’t call my mom. But he did call poison control,” Wright wrote alongside a clip of her typing on a computer. “We were 13 and he didn’t know what else to do.”
Luckily, according to Wright’s video, “They got to me just in time and had me hospitalized until I got better.”
Although she wrote that she moved schools and they never talked again, she added that she thought about Looper every day and just wanted him to know, “I’m happy now. I’m safe.”
After posting the video, it took about 12 hours for TikTok users to track down Looper, says Wright, whose video quickly gained traction. (It has now been liked more than 1 million times.)
When she saw he responded to her video, she was overwhelmed.
“I saw his response and I literally just burst into tears at work,” she recalls. “My co-workers were like, ‘Girl, what’s wrong?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, they found him!’ ”
Looper, who lives a quiet life these days, is currently “very happily married” with several kids in California — and Wright says she’s mostly been conversing with his wife.
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“I reached out to her at first and was just like, ‘Girl, I did not expect the attention on this. And I’m sorry if this gave any attention to your family that caught you off guard,’ ” adds Wright.
Since her suicide attempt, Wright went through years of therapy, which she said has “made me a very strong person.” Now, she tells PEOPLE she is “in a really, really good spot” and is oftentimes “the person people go to now for advice.”
In fact, Wright is working to start a local therapy group, which she hopes can be an outlet for those who need a space “just to talk.”
“I’m a full believer that we go through things for a reason,” she explains. “And if I can put all of my traumas into helping other people, I would love to do that.”
Wright is still getting messages from strangers about her video, including one person who said her video helped save their life. “I got goosebumps when I read that,” Wright admits.
No matter the circumstances or consequences, Wright encourages people to follow in Looper’s footsteps if a friend or loved one appears to be in trouble.
Wright — who was diagnosed with stage four uterine cancer two years ago, but learned earlier this month that no cancer was detected in her body — also wants people to know that “it is okay to not be okay.”
“We don’t have to be tough all the time and act like we have it all together,” she says. “It’s okay to be broken sometimes, and that’s our job as human beings to just show compassion to other people and help build them back up.”
She adds, “I know it’s hard to see that sometimes when your brain is foggy and gray, but it really does get better and end it with how do you know if you don’t hold on.”
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.
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