The man pulled him from the overcrowded pens in the football stadium during the crush and lifted him onto his shoulders for safety.

When previously unseen footage was aired in a recent TV documentary, it was the first time Joe saw the man carry him across the pitch.

He launched an appeal on Facebook to try and find his rescuer.

“The man whose shoulders I am on, is the man who helped save my life at Hillsborough,” he wrote. “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, please can you share this status and help me find my hero of that day.”

ITV Granada Reports took up the challenge and reunited Joe with John McMahon, the man seen lifting him across the pitch in the footage.

The pair met at Anfield, where they visited the club's Hillsborough Memorial to pay their respects to those who died on that tragic day.

“I owe a great deal of why I'm still standing her today to John,” Joe said.

“John's been - he doesn't like me saying the word 'hero', he finds it a little bit bizarre... but that's how I see him.”

John insisted he had just tried to help, as so many others did.

"It was really just doing what other people around me were doing," he added.

"You could see Joe was not in a good state and he needed to get out as fast as he could. It was just something that I did instinctively... The noise, the pressure on people. He just had to get out."

Joe wasn’t the only one he helped. Once he knew the young boy was safe he returned to the pens to help other fans still trapped.

"I was one of thousands of people doing the same thing.”

H/T: ITV Granada Reports