Child survivor of Hillsborough in appeal to find 'Guardian Angel'
A survivor of the Hillsborough disaster has told Radio City how he's searching for the hero who saved his life in the disaster - after watching footage of the moment he was rescued from the deadly crush.
A survivor of the Hillsborough disaster has told Radio City how he's searching for the hero who saved his life in the disaster - after watching footage of the moment he was rescued from the deadly crush.
Joe Smith from Kirkby was just 8 years old when he and his Step-Dad were caught up in the crush at the Leppings Lane end of the stadium on the 15th April 1989.
96 men, women and children died that day in the worst sporting disaster the UK has ever seen. Joe, now a 35 year old is now looking for the man who rescued him from the pens.
He said: "I owe the man a pint, I want to thank him. I want to be able to embrace him myself and tell him what he did for me that day."
"He kept me focused on different things, avoiding the horrors around me. His sole focus was finding my stepdad trying to keep me in good spirits and trying to be positive in such a bad situation we were"
"If it wasn't for him, I could of potentially died, I could have seen a lot more than I should've seen for such an early age which could've had an adverse effect on me growing up"
Joe first launched his appeal when he watch the documentary Hillsborough, which was shown on the BBC earlier this week- whilst watching he saw the emotional footage of his rescue and decided to launch an appeal to find his hero.
He said: "I broke down straight away after seeing the footage. My focus then was I need to find this guy, and need to thank him for what he did that day"
On Facebook the dad of two posted a still of the footage with the message - "The man who's shoulders I am on, is the man who helped save my life at Hillsborough"
"I've never in 27 years seen this image until the documentary just released, and it's thrown me big time.
"I would love to find this man and thank him for what he did for me that day, please can you share this status and help me find my hero of that day ‪#‎JFT96‬."
So far the post has gone viral, and has been shared by more than 97,000 people.
Joe said:
"I've had people contacting me from Canada, Austria, New Zealand, all over the world, it's gone mental, but I do want to work through the message to find any leads."
"I'm sure he's probably told the story himself that he did help me. I've always thought about what I would say to him, the main thing is to thank him. He was a Guardian Angel for me that day and I want to make sure he knows that"
"From a personal perspective it will give me closure from the disaster, what happened with the verdicts was amazing, but for myself it would help bring my own closure on what went on that day."
Can you help? If so contact Radio City on our email news@radiocity.co.uk or our twitter feed we're @radiocitynews
You can listen to Joe's full interview below