We forged a bond as kids in hospital after being blown up by US missiles..now my best friend uses his one arm to help me dress
IRAQ ORPHAN ALI ON LIFE IN UK WITH FELLOW WAR VICTIM
There was an instant bond as we were both badly wounded and had lost family ALI ABBAS ON MEETING BEST FRIEND AHMED AL ABDULLAH IN HOSPITAL
THEY met in the most devastating circumstances but have forged an extraordinary friendship. Brave Iraq bomb survivor Ali Abbas has formed an unbreakable bond with Ahmed Al Abdullah and they help each other live with their horrific injuries.
Fifteen years ago, aged 12 and 14, they met after being injured in blasts, healed together, found refuge in Britain and built a life together in a small terraced house they now call home.
Ali, now 27, recalls: “I will never forget the first time I saw Ahmed as I was in intensive care in a Kuwait hospital and Ahmed was in a bed across the room.
“I would try to make eye contact and as the weeks passed, we would smile at each other as we were both confined to bed – as I had lost my arms and Ahmed a foot and an arm.
“Once he was well enough to speak, my uncle, who was caring for me in the hospital, began speaking to him and we learned that his Baghdad home had been struck by an American missile a week after mine.
“His 12-year-old sister was killed in the blast and, just like me, he was plucked from the rubble by a neighbour. Luckily, his parents survived but he had become separated from them, while I lost 16 members of my family.
“When we were both moved from intensive care after one month, I was able to start getting to know Ahmed. We did many things in the hospital together, including having wheelchair races. He would push mine with one arm and I would push his with my feet.
“There was an instant bond as were both badly wounded and I had lost my entire family, while he had lost his sister.
“Sometimes we just sat and cried and cried together. We found each other in really difficult times and Ahmed is still the one I speak to if I feel something really emotional. I wouldn’t even speak to my wife about some of the things I share with him, as he truly understands what I went through.”
Yesterday Ali told the Mirror how he had become proud dad to Yusuf and how he feeds the tot a bottle using his feet.
Ali’s life changed for ever on March 30, 2003, when he was just 12, while Ahmed’s world was shattered a week later.
Ali says: “I was just a little kid, enjoying my life, going to school, playing football, with lots of friends.”
He had fallen asleep with mum Azhar, dad Ismaeel, and 10-yearold brother Abbas, who were all sleeping in the same room when a US missile struck.
Ali says: “In the aftermath, everything was gone, my family, our animals and there was just me. One of my neighbours came and grabbed me and put me in a car and sent me to hospital. I knew that I had lost my arms but I didn’t know I had lost my family. I found that out much later. I kept asking to see them in hospital and my uncle kept saying, ‘they will see you soon’.
“I knew something had happened to them. I asked my auntie whether my family had died. And she couldn’t answer me. It was then I knew they’d gone.”
Ahmed, now 29, describes a similar horror, saying he and his family were having a meal in their garden when they saw American helicopters overhead. He says: “A very low-flying helicopter appeared above us and dropped a bomb.” His sister was killed, his brother, eight, lost a hand and an eye, and his dad was severely injured.
After a difficult six-month recovery in hospital, Ali began to receive immigration offers from charities around the world keen to help him rebuild his life.
He says: “I got many offers to go to other countries, including Canada and America, but I was very clear I would only go if the offer was extended to Ahmed, too, as he needed help as much as I did. Also, by then, he’d become like family to me and I couldn’t leave him behind. Finally, a UK charity agreed to take us as a pair.”
To start his new life, Ali was accompanied by his uncle Mohammed, while Ahmed’s father, also Mohammed, came to care for his son. But Ahmed’s mum had to stay behind to look after his remaining three brothers and two sisters.
Settling into a small home provided by the charity, Ali was reliant on Ahmed’s unflinching devotion and kindness. He says: “I wasn’t able to use my feet to do anything and I couldn’t adjust to the prosthetic arms I’d been given.
“So Ahmed and I decided that we’d share his one good arm. He helped me with eating, drinking and even playing the PlayStation. He has always done these things with patience and kindness,
and never once refused. I don’t know what I’d have done without him but he often says the same of me.
“I do a lot of things single-handedly but, on a day-to-day level, Ahmed helps me with things like dressing and cooking.”
As well as sharing the same traumatic experience of war, both boys found they had lots in common socially, including a love of football.
Now they both play for the Arsenal London Amps, a team of amputees affiliated to the Premier League club.
Manchester United fan Ali says: “Before our disabilities, we both loved football and it was one of the things we wanted to play again as soon as we were well.
“For a long time, I couldn’t walk let alone find balance but Ahmed kept working with me and, eventually, I found the confidence to play again. Football has saved us from the abyss. It has given us both an inner confidence and it means we’ve never sunk into a deep depression.”
Recently, the pair both found love and became fathers. Ahmed married first after being introduced to his wife Alla, 27, by Ali. Ali says: “I knew Alla and thought she could be a good wife for Ahmed, so I set them up on a date.
“I was so happy when they fell in love and her family accepted him.”
Ahmed and Alla have gone on to have two daughters, Janat, three, and Zahraa, two. Sadly immigration laws currently keep them apart but Ahmed makes frequent trips home to Iraq with Ali.
Ali adds: “I was so happy for Ahmed when he had his children. I had been praying for that to happen for him.
“Finding love myself was completely unexpected. I was introduced to Zainab by my step-sister and we married in February last year. Now we have our beautiful son Yusuf.
“But I miss them a lot when they are in Iraq and I am here. London is my home now and I hope that we will one day live in a house all together.
“Ahmed and I often dream that our children will grow up together. There is no doubt we will always be together in some way, always be best friends.
“There aren’t many people like Ahmed. He is a present from God to me.”