Inspirational Frank set to star in a TV documentary

Frank Nezhadpournia, 42, who lives near Sandy was approached by Marjan Television Network and its subsidiary channel Manoto1.

They play to spend a day following in his footsteps next month, before broadcasting a 30 minute documentary as part of its popular Welcome To My Life programme.

With over two million Facebook fans and hundreds of thousands of followers and viewers on other social media sites, Manoto1 is the most popular TV channel among Persian speakers in the UK and all over Europe and Middle East.

Frank, who has been teaching local schoolchildren karate for a decade, said: “I thought the email was spam at first and replied as a joke, but then she called me straight away.

“I said ‘there are so many interesting people out there, why would you want to do a documentary about me?’”

Welcome To My Life features inspirational individuals of Iranian descend, who have contributed to the society they live in and have an interesting story to tell.

And Frank certainly has a story to tell. In his ten years of working with the area’s schoolchildren he has helped between 30 and 40 become black belts and will be taking some of his students off to compete in Paris.

A sixth degree black belt himself, Frank has also written four books about karate and self defence for women.

Frank has personal experience of the value of self defence, having experienced bullying first hand while at boarding school in the UK, and has been attacked with a knife twice. And he has recently jetting abroad to act as a bodyguard – or close protection officer – for a wealthy family.

A commercial pilot and flight instructor, Frank was also the first Anglo-Iranian to return to Iran for military service after being invited back by the president.

But his heart remains in Chronicle Country.

He added: “After a decade in these schools the students and staff have become like an extended family to me.”

The film crews will be filming Frank’s personal training and day to day life. He is hoping to arrange a book signing during filming, as well as visitng Dunton Lower School – the first school he began teaching karate in.

Visit www.actikarate.com to find out more about Frank.