Liz Hatton’s mother reveals how Prince William and Kate Middleton have continued to support the family after teenager’s death from cancer

The mother of teenage photographer Liz Hatton who died of cancer last month has revealed how the Prince and Princess of Wales have continued to support their family since her death.

Speaking at a memorial today for her daughter, Vicky Robayna told the Mail the couple had been ‘so kind, so caring’ and she couldn’t thank them, or their team, enough.

Surrounded by her talented daughter’s photographs that first brought her to William and Kate’s attention, she said: ‘They are so incredibly kind. They have been in touch throughout. It’s been a difficult time but we have had messages from them. They and their team are often checking in. They have looked after us incredibly.

‘They even invited us down to the carol service on Friday. We didn’t know if we would feel up to going, but I am so glad we did. It was so beautiful. They really looked after us.

‘I knew it would be one of those things we would regret if we hadn’t gone. It was tough as Liz had been determined to go to it and we now have so many memories associated with London. But I think we knew how cross she would be with us if we didn’t go. The prince and princess made it a lot easier. ‘

Liz was just 17 when she died from an extremely rare and largely untreatable cancer called Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumour and had just ten months from the day she was diagnosed to the day she died.

A passionate photographer, she determined to pack as much as she could in to her remaining time and devised with her family’s help a ‘bucket list’ of assignments to capture.

After the Prince of Wales got to hear about it, he invited her into Windsor Castle in October to photograph an investiture he was holding.

Much to the family’s surprise he then invited them for tea afterwards, with wife Kate – who has undergone her own cancer battle this year – joining them.

A photograph of her hugging Liz went viral and offers from organisations to help her fulfil the remaining items on her list – as well as dozens of others – flooded in, including an assignment at the Daily Mail.

Like the prince and princess, the public were deeply moved by Liz’s strength, maturity and determination to face her tragically inevitable death head on.

She had hoped to make Christmas, and the family had even tried to bring forward their own celebrations early so that she could spent it with her adored younger brother, Mateo.

Sadly she passed away quietly in the early hours of November 27 before that could happen.

Vicky, from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, said: ‘We are taking a lot of comfort from the legacy she has left for someone her age. And we really do have the prince and princess to thank for that. I mean before that there had been a little publicity about her bucket list but after they highlighted it, it just absolutely skyrocketed.

‘I have seen things on Twitter (X) attacking them and saying they have only done it for the publicity but that is just such rubbish. It just makes me so angry. We gave them full permission to make Liz’s story public in order to help her and others. No-one will ever know the extent of what they and their team have done behind the scenes to help us. They have all been unbelievably kind and they’ve kept in touch with all this time and looked after us so well. Liz wanted people to know that.

‘She loved their authenticity. I think kids can sniff that out. A lot of the reasons she did the press afterwards was because she wanted to tell everybody how kind the prince and princess were. They were so sincere. Liz knew how hard chemotherapy is and was angry that some people had criticised the princess over how she had handled her diagnosis. It made her incredibly sad. She was furious that people weren’t being kind.’

Vicky says she and her family, including Liz’s stepfather, Aaron, are getting through life ‘day by day’ and trying to focus on the positive.

Liz made the incredibly mature decision to donate her body to medical science after her death in the hope that studies of her condition might help prevent another family from being separated in the way they have. Within days of her death, her body was transported to Glasgow University for medical students to study.

Unable to hold a traditional funeral, Vicky today organised an exquisite exhibition of her work and a celebration of her life in her home town of Harrogate.

She also announced their intention to create a charity dedicated to research into rare forms of cancer such as her own. The family have already set up a fund which has raised £40,000 in just a matter of days.

You can donate to the JustGiving fundraiser here. 

‘I think the fundraising is helping us to get through things and keep going. We’ve lost Liz, we couldn’t save her. But we can save ourselves others,’ she said.

‘She received exceptional care from the NHS but what failed her was a lack of funding for rare cancers from government and pharmaceutical companies. The only people interested in this are the families affected and there is no charity for it anywhere in the world, so we have to galvanise people together.

‘The way I look at it is there was less than a million chance of Liz getting this cancer as there are just 12 years case in the UK each year, and 80% of those are boys. The chances of her getting it were minuscule. The chances of her being hugged by a princess, equally minuscule, right? The fact that those two things have collided and created the massive interest in her that there’s been, has to be for a reason. We have to use that for good and make a difference.

‘We now want to make sure that everybody who gets a diagnosis can search about it and find the right support, not scrabble around looking for a needle in a haystack like we did. If we can save one family from going through what we have it would be worth it.

‘And Liz wouldn’t want us to be down, she would want us to help those that are still alive.’

Vicky says Christmas will be ‘tough’ and the haven’t decided if and how to mark it – although they know Father Christmas will still come for Mateo.

‘We still really can’t believe she has gone.I think there’s still a great deal of lying to ourselves. We see things are think how much she would have loved it, which gives us happiness and pain at the same time,’ she said candidly.

In a video tribute to her daughter, played at today’s event accompanied by dozens of photographs of Liz both before and after her diagnosis, Vicky added: ‘You were brave, beautiful and brilliant. You were dedicated, determined and kind. Passionate about fighting for your beliefs and never happier behind a camera.

‘An unexpected meeting with the Prince and Princess of Wales bowled us all over and changed the rest of your life. Your heart wasn’t easy to win but once you did you were unfailingly loyal. Afterwards you would talk about how incredible then Prince and Princess had been with Mateo – always the route to your heart.

‘You accepted your fate with a grace and determination that I am not sure many much older that you would manage. You made the most of each second, grateful for every magical moment that came your way. You never complained, never said ‘why me’.

‘You shined so brightly….’