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SPRING 2026 InTouch | 11 "I just played my best. A bit of reggae music at the start, and then I went into some house music. It was a cool experience," he says. Harper at home on his DJ controller. Through DJing Trish has seen her son gain confidence and purpose, particularly as he’s navigated living with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a severe form of MD that progresses quickly. Diagnosed at age four, Harper has faced increasing physical challenges over the years because of the condition and lost the ability to walk in 2021. Learning he had DMD was devastating for Trish and her husband Dion. "We'd been through a fairly difficult couple of years knowing that there was something going on, but we weren't quite sure what.” As a young child Harper would play alongside his sister, however he was noticeably walking on his tiptoes, or toe walking, an early sign of DMD. "Even so, the diagnosis came out of the blue because there's no family history or anything like that," Trish says. Rather than look too far ahead, the family found a different way of approaching life. "I used to always plan my future. I actually stopped doing that because it wasn't helpful. So, we just live in the present. Harper does as well." Today he uses a power wheelchair full time, and the family home has been adapted over several years to make it accessible, with widened doorways, new flooring and renovated bathrooms. As his DMD has progressed, Trish says Harper has met each stage with remarkable resilience. "He's been amazing and just gotten on with it as best he can. He's done so amazing and inspires a lot of people around him.” As Harper gradually lost the ability to participate in activities he loved – kicking around a ball, shooting hoops, being in the sea especially – his parents were determined to find new interests he could enjoy. In late 2021, they were turned on to the Aotearoa DJ Academy in Wellington and every week made the hour- and-a-half round trip fromWaikanae to the capital for Harper’s lessons. Tucked away on Cuba Street, the venue wasn't particularly accessible, however his dad Dion would put Harper in his manual wheelchair and pull him up the steep flight of stairs, “which was a good workout for him”. HARPER FINDS HIS GROOVE Here Harper formed a close bond with his disc jockey sensei and mentor DJ Shan (Shan Chng-Rawiri) at the academy, and under his tutelage dedicated himself to his craft. The effort soon paid off. In 2022 he was invited to play at a show in Paekākāriki by a well-known DJ collab based out of Paraparaumu called The Paepae Soundsystem. Despite it being Harper’s debut gig and performing for 100 people, he was cool, calm and collected, Trish says. He was up on stage for over an hour and saw all his DJ lessons rewarded as the dancefloor got down to his set. "I just played my best. A bit of reggae music at the start, and then I went into some house music. It was a cool experience," he says. For Harper’s parents, who were watching on, it was a different story. "We were more nervous than Harper, we didn’t tell him that though," Trish laughs.