The family of a teenager who met Prince William and Princess Kate just months ago held a celebration today to celebrate her 17 years of life.
Liz Hatton, 17, was invited by the Prince of Wales, 42, to photograph an Investiture at Windsor Castle in October to help the teenager tick off items from her bucket list, which revolved around her love of photography.
After photographing the event, Liz, who had a desmoplastic small round cell tumour, met the Princess of Wales, who had just finished chemotherapy for her own cancer diagnosis. The pair were photographed hugging at Windsor Castle as they spoke about their mutual love of photography, alongside Liz’s parents and younger brother.
Since the meeting, the Yorkshire teenager was given a number of photography-related opportunities including taking pictures of comedian Michael McIntyre, circus performers, the Royal Ballet, and the red carpet at the MTV Europe Music Awards.
She sadly died on November 27, with Princess Kate and Prince William paying tribute to the teenager, who they called “brave and humble”.
On December 11, the family of Liz Hatton gathered in the ballroom in the DoubleTree by Hilton Harrogate Majestic Hotel to view Liz’s photographs and celebrate her life, which included eating some of her favourite snacks, including lemon drizzle cake and international sweets.
Liz’s mum, Vicky Robayna, said: “Liz died two weeks ago, and she very definitely didn’t want a funeral. She donated her body to medical research, and she wanted a party, not a funeral.
“So that’s what we’re here doing – an exhibition of her photos, eating her very favourite snacks, and hopefully raising lots of money to stop other families losing their children from desmoplastic small round cell tumours.
“Liz was inspirational. She was brilliant, beautiful, humble, talented and the most modest person you could ever meet. She had no awareness of how incredible she was, and I think that’s a big reason why people fell in love with her so much because she never understood the interest.”
Mrs Robayna continued: “Taking photographs changed Liz’s life and made the last 10 months of her life, and in particular the last two, the best of her life.
“She was so poorly, but she got up every morning with a smile on her face, looking forward to what she was going to do that day. If she wasn’t in hospital, she was out taking photographs. She never said ‘why me’, she said ‘let’s make the most of every single second’ and that is absolutely what she did.”
The family are trying to raise money to go towards research into desmoplastic small round cell tumour, with £40,000 being raised so far at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/vicky-robayna.
Liz’s mum said: “The legacy we want Liz to have is of her kindness, her bravery and her determination, but also of her passion for making a difference to other people. Liz set us one final item on the bucket list, and that was to raise enough money to stop other people going through desmoplastic small round cell tumour with no effective treatment.
“So we’re going to launch the first charity in the world for desmoplastic small round cell tumour, and we’re hopefully going to make that worldwide to raise money to fund research and to support families going through the condition. The only funding that goes on is funded independently by parents, and it’s time to galvanise the troops and make it better, because 17-year-olds shouldn’t be dying because we haven’t spent enough money finding out how we can fix the problem.”
