As he prepares to retire, Result Co-Founder and Director Hormoz Ahmadzadeh’s story of empathy, kindness and support reveals what hope can achieve, and is a reminder that Result associates are what they do.
One of the things Result prides itself on, is the lived (or living) experience of all of its associates. Whether the work involves disabled, deaf or neurodiverse people, members of the LGBTQ+ community, migrants to the UK, or those who have experienced racism - there’s someone on the team who shares a commonality.
In that sense, the people at Result are, indeed, what they do.
Right now, flags are being raised around the UK by people who say they are a symbol of hope for our communities, but who have questionable and worrying intentions when it comes to immigration in general and the different people making up those communities.
Many immigrants truly understand what hope really is: the hope of escape; the hope of a better life; the hope of ANY life for their families. As a former refugee himself - part of the Iranian diaspora, fleeing his homeland after the Islamic Revolution - Hormoz has a particular empathy with those facing terrible hardships, seeking asylum, and finding refuge. Perhaps, more than many, he understands the true meaning of hope.
Back in 2022, Hormoz and his husband Robert, Result’s Marketing Associate, decided to offer a room in their house to a refugee. Specifically, they worked with a charity called Micro Rainbow so that they might be able to support a refugee also facing the added challenge of finding safety whilst being LGBT or Q. For a while, nothing happened. Then, in February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine.
Later that year, Hormoz and Robert welcomed a man into their home - Oleksii. His command of English was basic, his belongings were few, and his life had been entirely blown apart. In the case of the house he had once owned - literally blown apart.
Oleksii had been a renowned and respected TV producer in Ukraine, making regular visits abroad in support of his programmes. In fact, and somewhat ironically, he was in Moscow when the invasion began, so had to flee Russia fearing for his own safety. Unable to return home, he made his way to Germany and, eventually, England. He has never returned to Ukraine where men of his age would be forced into the army. Oleksii was forced to start again.
Just as Hormoz and his family had to. Just as fellow Result Director Saif Ali and his family had to. Just as so many refugees and asylum seekers have to. And over the following years, supported by a wealth of Hormoz’s friends and family, Oleksii slowly started to build a new life. Gone were the days of a well-paid job, a social life filled with friends, restaurants, and culture. Gone also was his mother, trapped in Kiev, and his daughter, taken to the USA by her mother as the war intensified. Oleksii has not seen her in the flesh since the start of the war.
Support from the UK Government for those from Ukraine was more generous than that available to other (non-white?) refugees, however, anyone believing the current rumour-mongering of free mobile phones and luxury hotels is deluded. What really supported Oleksii - what really gave him hope - was an abundance of compassion, of empathy, of kindness from Hormoz, from Robert, from their family and community, including Result’s Jane Cordell who made him so very welcome. And Dusty, Hormoz’s dog, who immediately bonded with the stray human she found herself living with.
Skip forward, and in early 2025, Hormoz and Robert were able to secure a space in their home for Oleksii’s mother, desperate to flee her war-torn city. Her arrival prompted the provision by Salford Council of a flat for the mother and son, a place of their own, a home representing the next chapter of their lives. A place of hope.
In July 2025, Oleksii opened his own business. Using funds from the sale of his mother’s flat in Ukraine he was able to take on a cafe in North Manchester - his dream of working for himself, of being part of a community and of contributing to society, made reality.
Bridie’s Kitchen in Middleton is under new management - Oleksii’s management. As well as its popular existing menu, the cafe will be offering tasty Eastern European fare, ensuring visits from existing customers and encouraging new ones from migrant communities in the area.
Hormoz, Robert and Jane have already eaten there several times. The food is great and the welcome is warm. More than that though, as Union Jacks flutter from the lampposts, Oleksii’s journey towards opening his cafe represents what kindness, empathy and compassion can achieve and what real hope actually is; the opportunity of a shattered life lived usefully, with purpose and in peace.
Hormoz and Oleksii - both migrants who have faced enormous challenges because regimes change, countries invade each other, and because displacement changes lives forever. Hormoz went on to co-found Result. Oleksii has saved an established local business from permanently closing, employing local people. Both becoming part of their new communities, both contributing to society, both passing on and returning the kindness and empathy that they themselves have been afforded.
Neither hanging flags.
That’s hope.
We are what we do and we love what we do.