When Liz Hatton’s mother saw her 16-year-old daughter lose weight and experience stomach problems, her first assumption was that her daughter had developed an eating disorder.
But the real culprit was a form of cancer so rare that only 12 cases are diagnosed in England each year and it has no standard treatment.
Now Liz, who captured the hearts of the nation during a moving meeting with the Princess of Wales, has died less than a year after her diagnosis of a desmoplastic small round cell tumour.
The hugely talented photographer snuck into her Harrogate home in the early hours of yesterday.
Adolescent disease is an incredibly rare form of cancer that develops in the connective tissue, muscles, fat, nerves and blood vessels surrounding the organs in the abdomen and pelvis.
The symptoms of this type of cancer are known to vary widely depending on exactly where in the connective tissue the tumor emerges and how quickly it grows.
In Liz’s case, the first sign of any problem was harmless: a simple shoulder pain in the fall of 2023 that she dismissed as a consequence of carrying a heavy bag every day.
Then came the swelling, and that’s when his mother Vicky Robayna, a teacher specializing in autism, began to worry.
Liz Hatton (centre), from Harrogate, Yorkshire, was diagnosed in January with a desmoplastic small round cell tumour, a rare and extremely aggressive form of the disease. His mother Vicky (right) initially thought some of the early symptoms could be a sign of anorexia. Pictured is Liz and her family with the Prince and Princess of Wales.
But these concerns centered on Liz’s mental well-being.
Vicky had watched her daughter lose weight over the previous few months and now, with an apparent digestive problem, she feared her daughter might have an eating disorder.
“To be honest, she was worried about anorexia, she had lost so much weight over the summer with her GCSEs – she was anxious and wanted to do well – so I said: you’re just gaining a bit of weight back,” she recalled. .
Liz, who was 16 at the time, had already made a GP appointment in January this year for bloating when her health problems escalated at devastating speed.
The bloating developed into very visible swelling in her abdomen and pain, which Liz initially attributed to her period.
“It just didn’t make sense,” Liz recalled earlier this year. ‘I’m still on my period, aren’t I?’ It was unbearable, I didn’t sleep all night.’
Calling NHS 111, Liz was given an urgent non-emergency hospital appointment, where staff said the teenager could have an ovarian cyst, a relatively common condition that can be painful but usually resolves on its own without treatment.
Doctors then advised him to contact his GP to arrange a scan.
The Princess of Wales was pictured sharing a tender hug with Liz when they met at Windsor Castle in October and bonding over their shared love of photography.
But the next day the pain became so agonizing that the family decided to go to the emergency room.
“I was in so much pain it was ridiculous,” Vicky said.
Then, at midnight, after a series of tests and scans, the true severity of the young woman’s condition came to light.
Doctors told the family that Liz had masses in her liver and ovaries.
At that time the doctors could not say with certainty that it was cancer, but the next day the family received the sad news that it was indeed the disease.
This was devastating, but the family was encouraged by the fact that 85 percent of childhood cancer patients survive their disease for five years or more.
Then, three days later, new tests revealed that Liz’s cancer was an incredibly rare desmoplastic small round cell tumor and that the five-year survival was 15 percent.
Liz recalled bluntly asking doctors: ‘Am I f—ing?’, before apologizing to her mother for swearing.
Liz was the star of the show as she attended an exhibition on his behalf last week.
The doctors’ answer at the time was “no,” given his age and general health, but they did not shy away from the fact that the treatment would be grueling.
It was at that time that Liz was told she had between six months and three years to live.
“Even at 15 percent, I was thinking, ‘She’s never been sick outside of school, she has an incredible immune system, she has a lot of possibilities,'” Vicky recalled of that time.
What followed were 10 rounds of intensive chemotherapy, around 50 pills a day before Liz made the decision to stop treatment in September after the tumors stopped responding to treatment.
Instead, she opted to spend her remaining time with her family, explaining that she wanted to “enjoy the time I have left, rather than spending it stuck in the hospital and feeling even more terrible and sick with side effects.”
As part of this, he fulfilled a ‘wish list’ of things he wanted to do in his final months of life, which eventually reached the ears of the future king and queen.
Liz was invited by them to Windsor Castle to photograph an investiture William was holding and, to their surprise, asked to have tea with the couple afterwards.
Catherine, who has been through her own cancer journey this year, was photographed giving Liz an emotional hug, although the pair deliberately did not talk about their respective experiences, instead focusing on their shared love of photography.
Liz, who fell in love with photography as a child, “would have liked nothing more” than for her photographs to be “seen once again.” In honor of this, the Daily Mail publishes this photo it took of its beloved Mateo
As a result of their encounter, the teenager was inundated with offers of support and was able to complete almost her entire bucket list, including photographing a film premiere in London, holding her own exhibition and more.
The family has now started a Just Giving Page saying their mission is to raise money to fund research into desmoplastic small round cell tumor in Liz’s memory.
Speaking last night after Liz’s death, Vicky said the family were comforted by the fact that she had blazed that trail in such a short time.
She said: ‘Our lovely Liz died in the early hours of this morning. She remained determined until the end.
‘Even yesterday she was telling me that it would be better if I hired nurses so that she could do more things.
‘She went out in a blaze of glory and almost everyone who cared last saw her at her exhibition last week.
‘I couldn’t be more proud of her. He has faced each day with incredible bravery. And now it’s our turn to make her proud and give her brother the life she expects us to give him.
“She was never afraid of dying, but she was terrified of leaving it behind. Our job is to make it a little easier for her.’
Vicky added that Liz, who fell in love with photography as a child, would have “liked nothing more” than for her photographs to be “seen once again”.
In honor of this, the Mail publishes a photograph he took of his beloved brother Mateo.