A Utah man's journey through family separation and childhood cancer to self-defense

PAROWAN — If there's one rule Dwight Hargett has, it's to keep himself and others safe. So, when it came time to ensure the safety and well-being of his family, he decided to move to Utah.

"I drove to Utah by myself and spent a few days out here ... and I just knew this was the place for us," Hargett told KSL.

The year was 2020 and at the time, he was experiencing a "separation from family" and grappling with how to navigate life with a child who had cancer.

"We were living in Southern California, and I was teaching jiu-jitsu and we had a separation from my family right around the time that my oldest daughter got sick."

The family Hargett is talking about being separated from was a group home where he was born in Thailand. The group was the subject of many global child protection raids in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with many former members citing sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

"It was supposedly a religious organization that was really a grooming organization for young kids," Hargett said. "There was a lot of physical, sexual and verbal abuse. My parents were complicit in that."

The separation from his family came about the time his daughter, then 19 months old, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. This is a rare and aggressive cancer that develops in the adrenal glands, primarily affecting children under the age of 5. And while the cancer was quickly removed, his daughter had developed a neurological disorder that would cause her to have to relearn everything.

"She developed a syndrome called opsoclonus-myoclonus ataxia syndrome, which she's still working through right now," he said. "With this, the autoimmune system attacks the nerves in order to fight off the cancer. She had to start from scratch again at 19 months old, learn how to move and talk, and stop her eyes from moving on their own. This has really affected her daily life.

"A lot of the time, we were living in the past and the future," he continued. "It was very difficult to be present when you're worried about the health of your child."

Moving to Parowan was the restart he said his family needed. With that new start, Hargett brought something from his childhood with him — martial arts.

Shortly after moving to Parowan, Hargett opened Patriot Jiu-Jitsu to show children how to protect themselves in skillful ways.

"There's such a big problem with bullying and violence in the state of Utah," he said. "I know that suicide (rates) are in the top in the United States. My mission is to make self-defense training mandatory in public schools.

"It's really important for kids to understand what's allowed and what's not allowed," he added. "It's important for teachers and school administrators to understand that, too."

His classes have steadily grown over the years, as has his own family, with two more children added since the move to Parowan. He will soon be opening a new facility that he hopes will bring martial arts and self-defense to those who need it most.

"A lot of people look at martial arts as violent," he said. "The world is not getting safer and we need to teach kids and adults how to protect their space, keep boundaries and to also know their legal boundaries and what they are allowed to do when someone doesn't accept no for an answer."

Not only does Hargett teach students at his own gym, but he also extends his services as the accredited self-defense professor at Southern Utah University. He called teaching college students the art of self-defense an "honor."

"Where I grew up, being a university professor is probably one of the greatest honors," he said. "I always thought that being a college professor would be really cool, but I never thought I would be one."

Another thing he never thought would be his reality is becoming a champion MMA fighter. This, he said, is something that he's been excited about and he has several fights coming up. He also said it's been good to watch his own children learn the importance of self-defense.

"I learned at a real young age that the most important thing that a child can learn is self-defense," he said. "That's why I've really given my life to training and teaching martial arts."

Related topics