Just over a year ago, Imran Amjad’s daughter Uqasha was killed riding her motorbike along the Barton Highway in Nicholls. In the months that followed, Imran and his family began building something in her name, reports DHWANI PATHEK.

Imran Amjad spends his days working through balance sheets and financial plans.

But for the past year, his most important work has been something else – finding a way to carry his daughter forward.

Just over a year ago, his daughter Uqasha was riding her motorbike along the Barton Highway in Nicholls when a public transport bus crashed into her. She was taken to hospital but later succumbed to her injuries. She was 22.

“(Her loss)… it has changed everything,” he says. “Time is the biggest healer, they say. Absolutely not. Time does not change someone’s absence.”

In the months that followed, Imran and his family began building something in her name, the Uqasha Imran Foundation, a way to turn what she cared about into something that continues.

At home, her presence is still felt everywhere. 

“Whether it’s in the house itself, looking at where she would have been sitting… everything has changed.”

Uqasha was the eldest of four siblings. Her name itself, as Imran explains, is a prayer for betterment in life and repentance.

For the four and a half years leading up to the accident, Uqasha worked alongside her father in his office. 

“For me, that was a bond of 24/7,” Imran recalls. “We would go to the office together. We travelled back home together.”

He remembers the small, everyday habits that now carry the most weight, “We would get home, and it would be late in the night and she would say: ‘Do you want to go for a coffee?’”.

Instead of letting the sorrow consume him, Imran chose a different path for the sake of his wife, Alia, and their three other children. He says, “Talking about her in a very open way gives comfort. Being a very proud father, knowing who she was and how she left a mark on so many lives, it becomes easier to talk about it.”

The idea for the Uqasha Imran Foundation took shape in May 2025 during a “celebration of life” event. 

Sport was a big part of Uqasha’s life. She began taekwondo at nine and stayed with it for years, eventually mentoring younger students.

“She loved the sport,” he says. “Every time she would come back from a training session, she would talk about… helping kids.”

She also loved the outdoors. Be it swimming, cycling or hiking. Those interests now shape the legacy her family is building.

The foundation aims to help young people, especially girls, stay involved in sport when financial pressures might otherwise force them to stop.

“Whenever there is a financial strain… the first thing is kids’ activities taken off the table,” he says. “Especially when it comes to girls.”

He had seen Uqasha recognise that gap herself.

“She was helping so many young kids at such a tender age.”

What began as an idea is now a family effort. His son, just 20, serves as the secretary, and his younger daughter took on the role of MC during the foundation’s launch. His wife, Alia, was the first person he spoke to about the idea, and she was on board from the first second.

“Our core message is: there was always someone first to believe in a kid’s ability to excel in sports,” Imran says. “The foundation is in Uqasha’s name to be that someone.” 

That support has also come from across cultures and communities.

“When I say community, it’s not just one community… everyone is part of the community,” he says.

The foundation is already making an impact. Some of the first children it supported have been able to attend competitions they otherwise could not afford.

“It was amazing to see that even a small drop made a big difference in their life.”

At its core, the foundation carries a simple idea: that no child should miss out on sport because of financial constraints. The foundation provides grants to help cover the costs of training, equipment and travel for interstate tournaments.

For parents, his message is just as direct.

“If that is your own child, you will do whatever to find a way to help,” he says. “Then you expand that to other children.”

Because in the end, he says, that instinct is universal.

“Helping a child… is every parent’s dream.”

Through the foundation, Uqasha’s name continues to be spoken, and her spirit of giving remains in motion.

“There isn’t one way to deal with this,” he says. “But this is how we carry her forward.”

Because for him, this is what remains: not just the loss, but what he chooses to build from it.

Donate at uqashaimranfoundation.org

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