The strong bond between Ipswich Town and Fortuna Dusseldorf, includes one special tie that will never be broken.

German Blues supporter Jo Sturr returned to Portman Road for just the second time since Ipswich fan Kylie Malapeau saved his life during the Dusseldorf club’s annual visit last January.

Type 1 Diabetic Jo felt unwell before last season’s home defeat to QPR on January 11, but watched the game before Kylie took matters into her own hands and called an ambulance.

It was a telephone call that ultimately saved 48-year-old Jo’s life and, remarkably, was the third time in as many years that Kylie had performed such a feat.

The part-time security worker resuscitated Brent Dunningham in Felixstowe, in November 2012, after being unable to find a pulse on the 67-year-old, having previously saved the life of a man who had collapsed on Star Lane in Ipswich a year earlier.

Jo and his wife Antje visited Kylie last year but he returned on his own last weekend, almost a year to the day since the traumatic event.

“Jo was unwell during the day and I looked after him,” recalled Kylie, who watched Saturday’s home defeat to Derby with her German friend, one of 180 Fortuna fans that made the trip over to watch their adopted British team.

“As the day went on he deteriorated.

“He was adamant he was going to be OK but the signs he was displaying, including vomiting blood, told me otherwise.

“I called an ambulance. His diabetes was off the scale and he was very ill and he also had kidney failure.

“He had to be admitted to hospital as soon as he got back to Germany and he stayed there for some weeks.

“Doctors said had I not called the ambulance he would have died.”