Family of teenage photographer kissed by Princess Kate pledges to fight rare childhood cancer | United Kingdom | News

The grieving family of a 17-year-old photographer who inspired the Princess of Wales have vowed to stop more young people dying from a rare and cruel cancer.

Liz Hatton, 17, made headlines when she was pictured kissing Kate at Windsor Castle, after traveling there from her home town of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, to take photos of William during an investiture ceremony.

She died at the end of November and her family is now raising money to create the first charity dedicated to research into Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumors (DSRCT) – the aggressive sarcoma Liz was diagnosed with only 10 months earlier.

William and Kate expressed their sadness after her death, saying it was “an honor to have met such a courageous and humble young woman.”

The family gathered with friends in the ballroom of the DoubleTree by Hilton Harrogate Majestic hotel on Wednesday to remember their life. His mother, Vicky Robayna, said: “17-year-olds shouldn’t be dying because we haven’t spent enough money to find out how we can solve the problem.

“Liz died two weeks ago and she 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 doing here: an exhibition of his photos, eating his favorite snacks and hopefully raising a lot of money to prevent other families from losing their children to desmoplastic tumor. small round cells.”

Ms Robayna added: “Liz was an inspiration. She was brilliant, beautiful, humble, talented and the most modest person you could ever meet.

“She didn’t realize how amazing she was, and I think that’s one of the main reasons people fell in love with her so much, because she never understood her point. .

“She never cared if people knew her name, she wanted people to see her photos and she wanted to make a difference.”

Dozens of well-wishers attended the memorial to view Liz’s photographs and sample her favorite snacks, including lemon cake, salt and vinegar discos and sweet treats.

As part of her bucket list, the Yorkshire teenager has photographed comedian Michael McIntyre, circus performers, the Royal Ballet, the MTV Europe Music Awards red carpet and joined famous British photographer Rankin to direct a photo shoot fashion.

Ms Robayna said: “Taking photos changed Liz’s life and made the last 10 months of her life, and especially the last two, the best of her life.

“She was very unwell, 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 the hospital, she was taking photos.

“She never said ‘why me’, she said ‘let’s make the most of every second’ and that’s absolutely what she did.”

So far, the appeal launched by Liz’s family has raised more than £40,000 towards its opening charity target of £100,000.

Ms Robayna explained: “The legacy we want Liz to leave is her kindness, her courage and her determination, but also her passion to make a difference for others.

“Liz set one last item on our to-do list, which was to raise enough money to prevent more people from suffering from desmoplastic small round cell tumor without effective treatment.

“So we’re going to launch the world’s first Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor charity, and we hope to do it around the world to raise money to fund research and support families facing this disease.”

She said there was less than a one in a million chance of her daughter contracting the disease, as only 12 people in the UK get it each year and 80 per cent of them are men.

Ms Robayna said: “Liz has lived less than 10 months after her diagnosis, not because we can’t find a treatment, but because there is no funding for it.

“It’s so rare that there’s no funding from governments, there’s no funding from pharmaceutical companies, there’s no charities set up for this purpose.

“The only funding that exists is independently funded by parents, and it’s time to galvanize the troops and make things better, because 17-year-olds shouldn’t be dying because we didn’t spend enough. ‘money to figure out how we can fix the problem.’

* Donations can be made to www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/vicky-robayna.