Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Kickboxing champion continues his fight to live but family hope to relocate to Iran

byMark Bowling
13 November 2017 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 4 mins read
AA
Masoud and Fatemeh

A mother’s love: Masoud Abdollah Pouri and his mother Fatemeh. Photo: Mark Bowling.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Masoud and Fatemeh
A mother’s love: Masoud Abdollah Pouri and his mother Fatemeh. Photo: Mark Bowling.

FORMER kickboxing champion Masoud Abdollah Pouri marked his 37th birthday recently – inside an aged-care nursing home in Brisbane’s northern suburbs.

The one-time member of Iran’s elite Thai kickboxing team has a hypoxic brain injury.

He cannot speak, is unable to move most of his body, and is in the constant care of his mother Fatemeh and younger brother Edris.

“We didn’t think he was going to make his birthday, he is still recovering from a severe flu infection,” his brother Edris, who is Masoud’s legal guardian, said.

“Many of the elderly patients here got the flu last month and some of them died.”

In May this year, The Catholic Leader told Masoud’s story – how he “defected” to Australia 15 years ago, became an Australian citizen, studied to become a paramedic, and pursued a professional career as a heavyweight kickboxer, known in the ring as “the Iranian Tank”.

Four years ago Masoud was relaxing at home after work when he suffered a massive stroke.

His mother and brother flew from northern Iran to help, and since then they have kept a daily vigil providing him with constant care, first in an acquired brain injury unit, and then in long-term residential care.

Doctors examined Masoud’s condition and deemed that the former boxer requires full-time care.  He probably always will.

Masoud now lives in Gannet House, an aged-care facility in Brighton where most of the residents are twice his age.  He is spoon fed by Fatemeh who stays with him most days.

Related Stories

Do you seriously think God can’t use you?

The season of ‘anticipation, hope, love and family’

18 classic Christmas movies for the family

Remarkably, Masoud, who once spoke seven languages, can still follow a conversation (in English and Kurdish) and can respond by blinking – once for “yes”, twice for “no”.

He smiles, and he cries.

Abdollah Pouri family
Family devotion: Masoud Abdollah Pouri, his brother Edris and mother Fatemeh. Masoud has major brain damage and is unable to move most of his body. Photo: Mark Bowling

Members of the St Joseph and St Anthony parish, Bracken Ridge, have offered Masoud and his family care, support and friendship.

“You come away feeling so enriched by their courage,” Helen Hickey, the parish’s sacramental co-ordinator and one of those lending a helping hand, said.

“Fatemeh and Edris have a beautiful attitude and their care for Masoud is amazing – their devotion touches your heart.”

Edris, 33, an architect, has put his life on hold to care for his older brother.

He is staying in Australia on a bridging visa and was recently granted permission to work.

This has allowed him to start as an Uber driver, working five hours a day so he can buy groceries and pay the rent.

Both Fatemeh and Edris have applied to immigration authorities for carer visas that would allow them to stay permanently.

So far, there has been no progress on that.

Neither mother nor son is willing to leave Australia, because they risk losing their current visa status.  However they are hoping that the family’s youngest son, Mansour, 30, who was recently released from the Iranian military, may soon be granted a visa to visit.

“He (Mansour) hasn’t seen Masoud in 14 years,” Edris said.

“I hope to pay for his ticket to come to Australia.”

In the meantime, Edris has set up a Go Fund Me campaign to try and raise enough money to move Masoud out of aged-care to a house where he can receive full-time family care.

“I hope you might be able to help because our family have been through hell and back and are broke with no financial support and we need help for him, if it might be possible to do so,” Edris wrote on the Go Fund Me website.

“If this would be possible, we would spend the money on housing and providing the equipment for Masouds care needs.”

Even though it has been a difficult decision to make, the family would one day like to return to Iran with Masoud. “We now believe it would benefit all of us to take Masoud back home although he will lose all medical and disability benefits that Australian Government kindly provide to all citizens in need, but the situation is no longer sustainable for us,” he said.

Edris can be contacted on 0413 401447, and donations made to https://www.gofundme.com/TankFundraising

ShareTweet
Previous Post

New journey of service begins for Brisbane men ordained deacons

Next Post

Rosies remembers 30 years since first mission to Schoolies

Mark Bowling

Mark is the joint winner of the Australian Variety Club 2000 Heart Award for his radio news reporting in East Timor, and has also won a Walkley award, Australia’s most-respected journalism award. Mark is the author of ‘Running Amok’ that chronicles his time as a foreign correspondent juggling news deadlines and the demands of being a husband and father. Mark is married with four children.

Related Posts

Evergreen: Harriette Thompson was an American classical pianist who later held the record for the oldest woman to run a marathon, at age 92, and also the oldest woman to complete a half-marathon, at 94.
Faith

Do you seriously think God can’t use you?

2 April 2022
The season of ‘anticipation, hope, love and family’
Faith

The season of ‘anticipation, hope, love and family’

28 December 2021
Classic films: Characters from It's a Wonderful Life.
Life

18 classic Christmas movies for the family

16 December 2021
Next Post
Rosies youth shelter

Rosies remembers 30 years since first mission to Schoolies

Paul and Christine Hodgkinson

How God keeps surprising Paul and Christine Hodgkinson

Majority of Australians vote yes in national same-sex marriage survey

Popular News

  • Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria
World

Gunmen kidnap two Catholic priests in Nigeria

by Staff writers
27 May 2022
0

By Catholic News Agency GUNMEN attacked a Catholic rectory and kidnapped two priests in northwest Nigeria on...

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

26 May 2022
Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

26 May 2022
Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

26 May 2022
Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north

Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north

25 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping