Real Life

Chris Harris: ‘My brave little girl’

The former Black Cap’s daughter battles on.

As Phoebe Harris plays cricket in the garden of her Zimbabwe home with her twin brother, Louie, and dad, Chris, her limp is barely noticeable. The plucky Kiwi toddler is determined to keep up and doesn’t let the fact she has a condition that has weakened the left side of her body hold her back from having fun.

“She has no idea that she’s got challenges,” smiles proud mum Linda, watching the twins and their older sister Sophie (10). “She’s struggled since she was born, but she’s an amazing little girl and such a blessing. Both she and her brother are.”

Two years ago, the Weekly told the story of the dramatic premature birth of Louie and Phoebe, born to Linda (42) and Chris (46) – a former New Zealand cricket representative. The twins were conceived after numerous cycles of IVF. Linda experienced a very difficult pregnancy and the couple were terrified they would lose their precious babies when she went into premature labour at just 25 weeks.

Doctors in the couple’s home town of Christchurch, where they were living at the time, were able to halt the labour, but Linda had to spend the next seven weeks in hospital. When contractions started again at 32 weeks, there was no stopping the delivery. Phoebe was not breathing when she was born and it took the medical team five minutes to resuscitate her. “It was very scary,” recalls Linda.

Wee Phoebe spent five weeks in the neonatal unit, but seemed to be fine. Chris and Linda were hopeful she’d been through the worst of it. However, they’ve since learned life is likely to be tougher in many ways for Phoebe than her brother.

“We were told never to compare the twins to each other, that they may develop at different rates, but perhaps we took that too literally,” says Linda. “Louie was thriving, but Phoebe was struggling and it took a while to realise that Phoebe just wasn’t developing the way she should be.”

While Louie was achieving the usual milestones, Phoebe never attempted to roll over or hold her head up until much later. Eventually, staff at a playgroup for premature babies realised that Phoebe had problems that were later diagnosed as hemiplegia. The condition is caused by the brain being deprived of oxygen – often during birth – and results in difficulty using one side of the body. Although the muscles are fully formed, messages from the brain have trouble getting through.

“We’re so thankful it was picked up at the playgroup,” says Linda. “We could have gone on for quite some time without realising and she would have formed bad habits.”

The couple put Phoebe into conductive education, a special therapy designed to help children with conditions such as hemiplegia and cerebral palsy. It’s based on the idea that skills everyone else takes for granted can be learned by using undamaged areas of the brain. With the help of trained professionals, called conductors, the children are taught every day skills that improve mobility and develop physical stamina.

“Rather than it being a natural thing, she has to be taught and she has to try to constantly use her left side,” explains Linda. “She does have a funny little gait and she’s had a few accidents – her right side would move and her left wouldn’t, and she’d fall down. She had a black eye for her second birthday because she fell and hit the coffee table on the way down. But she’s getting a lot better.”

The conductive education sessions had to stop when the family moved to Harare, Zimbabwe, 18 months ago so Chris could coach the under-19 cricket team. Linda still gets Phoebe to do the exercises she was taught and stays in regular email contact with the Kiwi conductors. Linda says Phoebe is a very happy little girl. She has a great sense of humour, loves to sing and dance, and chatters away in her own language.

“What she misses out on with physical ability, she makes up for with personality,” says her mum. Linda and Chris both believe the reason Phoebe is doing so well is in part due to Louie. “Wanting to keep up with her twin motivates her to try hard,” says Linda. “They get into a bit of rough and tumble. I think that is helping to make her stronger.”

They say having Phoebe in the family is a real blessing. “No matter how many times she falls, she gets up and carries on. She’s inspiring for us all.”

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