Hillsborough Disaster Survivor Meets The Man Who Saved His Life | Good Morning Britain — Transcript

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1. 0:03Outside Hillsbor Stadium, Joe Smith is
2. 0:05about to meet the man who saved his
3. 0:07life. I'm excited and nervous. This
4. 0:09grainy footage from a BBC documentary
5. 0:12unlocked memories for Joe. He was that
6. 0:158-year-old lost in the crowd. A stranger
7. 0:18hoisted him onto his shoulders to help
8. 0:20him find his family. Last Friday, Joe
9. 0:23came on Good Morning Britain in search
10. 0:25of his mystery hero. It would be
11. 0:27wonderful if you could meet up with
12. 0:28hero. I loved him. And it wasn't long
13. 0:30after the appeal for John McMahon's
14. 0:32phone to ring. Number of my friends, you
15. 0:35know, it's was an internet thing. It's
16. 0:37sensational. It's viral. And now, for
17. 0:39the first time since that tragic day at
18. 0:42Hillsborough, the two men are reunited.
19. 0:45I don't know a great deal of why I'm
20. 0:47still standing here today down to John.
21. 0:48There's thousands of heroes out there.
22. 0:50Absolutely thousands. Thousands of
23. 0:51Liverpool fans who did exactly what I
24. 0:53would have done and what I did. And and
25. 0:56they're the true heroes of the day.
26. 1:00There they are. Now, huge thank you to
27. 1:02Liverpool for helping us sort that out
28. 1:04outside Anfield. Joe Smith and John
29. 1:05McMahon, join us. It's Well, look, I
30. 1:08mean, let's start with you, Joe. John,
31. 1:09lovely to meet you. We were only talking
32. 1:10about you last week, and you were away
33. 1:11sunning yourself on holiday. We thought
34. 1:13we were led to believe it's been a tough
35. 1:14week,
36. 1:16Joe. So, when we spoke to you last week,
37. 1:18you'd seen the documentary. Uh, as Kate
38. 1:21was mentioning, it was at Hillsborough
39. 1:22all those years ago that it was John
40. 1:24that picked you up and scooped you up
41. 1:25and and you credit him really with
42. 1:27saving your life at a very terrifying
43. 1:28time. That's right. Yeah. Um, you know,
44. 1:30we were, like I say, we were sitting
45. 1:32here talking about it last week and, you
46. 1:33know, things went crazy, you know, after
47. 1:36the after being on the show and I was
48. 1:38fortunate enough to to get some contact
49. 1:40with John and we've been in
50. 1:41communication since. I was fascinated
51. 1:43because we were when we were talking,
52. 1:44sorry, when we were talking about it,
53. 1:45you were saying this man helped me. Uh,
54. 1:47at the time, John, how old were you? uh
55. 1:50only 16, so I was only a little nip of
56. 1:52myself. Um it was a bizarre situation to
57. 1:55be in at the time, but yeah, I was only
58. 1:5716 and so was many other uh young people
59. 2:00there at the time as well. Uh I think
60. 2:02the vast majority of the crowd would
61. 2:03have been uh teenagers and and one of
62. 2:06the stats about the 96 is there's a high
63. 2:08percentage that were actually uh under
64. 2:1020, which is shocking really. It is. It
65. 2:13says a lot for you, I think, at the age
66. 2:14of 16 that your instinct was to help
67. 2:18those around you in this must have been
68. 2:20terrifying situation, not to run away.
69. 2:23And Joe wasn't the only person you
70. 2:25helped, was he? Uh, no, he wasn't. Uh,
71. 2:27but there was thousands of other people
72. 2:29doing the same thing that day. Uh, well,
73. 2:30I'll rephrase that. There was thousands
74. 2:32of Liverpool supporters doing exactly
75. 2:33the same thing that day. Uh, helping
76. 2:35out. Uh, and ever since then, the
77. 2:38survivors really, I would say, have been
78. 2:40heroes. um because they've all given
79. 2:42evidence which has helped the families
80. 2:44get the the inquest and the um decision
81. 2:46that we were after and we got that
82. 2:48recently and we've done that through the
83. 2:50evidence that everybody has given which
84. 2:52has been phenomenal. So look Joe, we
85. 2:54know that it was the moment you saw that
86. 2:56face again on the documentary and you
87. 2:58thought gosh that was a man because
88. 3:00you'd had an image in your mind all this
89. 3:01time but had no way of knowing it had
90. 3:03been captured on video. How did you come
91. 3:05to know about it? Did you watch the
92. 3:06documentary as well? Did you see Joe?
93. 3:08Yeah, actually it was one of my friends
94. 3:10on a Sunday. Uh Walter, he um he sent me
95. 3:14a text message and says, "Has this boy
96. 3:16ever tried to get in touch with you?"
97. 3:18And I said, "No." He said, "Don't you
98. 3:19think that's a bit strange?" I was like,
99. 3:20"Not really, no." Cuz it was just one of
100. 3:22those things that happened. It wasn't a
101. 3:24big drama. Anyway, uh we on holiday. Uh
102. 3:27it was my wife's 40th, so we're
103. 3:29celebrating that. And then I woke up one
104. 3:31morning and he said, "You've gone crazy.
105. 3:33It's gone viral." Uh I was like, "What
106. 3:35are you talking about?" sort of thing.
107. 3:37checked it out on the phone uh and then
108. 3:39just couldn't believe what happened.
109. 3:40Really, it's gone crazy. And you knew
110. 3:41Did you know straight away that that you
111. 3:43were the guy that because that was the
112. 3:45other thing is you weren't sure where
113. 3:46you'd had a few people say, but you were
114. 3:47the guy that had scooped him up and put
115. 3:49him on his shoulders. Yeah, 100%. Uh Joe
116. 3:51mentioned this the other day about um
117. 3:52seeing the footage for the first time
118. 3:54and I followed it all the way through
119. 3:55and I've never seen that footage either.
120. 3:57There it is. There extraordinary. And
121. 3:58did you ever wonder what happened to
122. 4:00that little lad? Uh well, I'll be very
123. 4:02honest. Um, in some ways, not really,
124. 4:04because I knew Joe was okay. I I I gave
125. 4:07him back to the family members he was
126. 4:09with. Um, Joe's mentioned in all my
127. 4:11statements, the IPCC, he's been
128. 4:13mentioning all my statements all the way
129. 4:14through. So, it's not like I've
130. 4:15forgotten about him, but in my mind, it
131. 4:17was at rest because I knew he was okay.
132. 4:19He was safe. Probably the others. Yeah.
133. 4:22Yeah. That weren't as fortunate. What is
134. 4:23fascinating about this as well though,
135. 4:24Joe, is how many times the two of you
136. 4:26become come very close to meeting him
137. 4:28without realizing. Yeah. Um, we both
138. 4:30actually worked in the same building.
139. 4:32Goodness me. And this for the same
140. 4:34company at one point as well. So we've
141. 4:35probably brushed past each other many
142. 4:37times. Got in the lift together or
143. 4:38something and never know. I can't
144. 4:40believe you'd ever forget a man with a
145. 4:45but and what was that moment like when
146. 4:47you finally got to see him and you
147. 4:48finally got to say thank you, Joe? I was
148. 4:50wondering why he had a white t-shirt on
149. 4:52first showing his tan off. But no, it
150. 4:54was it was it was I was emotional. It
151. 4:56was really great to see him and give him
152. 4:58a hug and you know to to thank him
153. 5:00really for for saving me life. I mean,
154. 5:02he he's quite humble, John. He doesn't
155. 5:04like hearing the word hero and people
156. 5:06describing him as a hero, but you know,
157. 5:08that's the way I see him at the end of
158. 5:09the day. So, well, look, it's an
159. 5:11absolute treat for us to to have you
160. 5:13here again just a week later and having
161. 5:14brought you together is is really
162. 5:16exciting and undoubtedly as as Joe said,
163. 5:18you were here. I know you won't take it,
164. 5:19but there were lots of people doing
165. 5:20similarly things, but thank you so much
166. 5:22for joining us again and sharing your
167. 5:23story. Really good to see you both.
168. 5:25Thanks for coming in.
169. 5:27[Music]