\nKate Middleton and Prince William are mourning the death of Liz Hatton, the teenage cancer patient who inspired the royals after meeting her in October.\n
Hatton passed away Wednesday at the age of 17 after battling a rare form of cancer.\n
She and her family met the Prince and Princess of Wales at Windsor Castle on Oct. 2, who helped fulfill part of the teen\u2019s photography \u201cbucket list\u201d dream.\n
On Thursday, William and Kate, both 42, shared an emotional statement on their social media accounts paying tribute to Hatton.\n
\u201cWe are so sorry to hear that Liz Hatton has sadly passed away,\u201d they wrote. \u201cIt was an honour to have met such a brave and humble young woman.\u201d\n
\u201cOur thoughts and prayers are with Liz\u2019s parents Vicky and Aaron and her brother Mateo at this unimaginably difficult time.\u201d\n
The royals signed their post \u201cW & C,\u201d the initials of their first names that they add to statements to indicate that the message is more personal and comes directly from them.\n
Though commonly known as \u201cKate,\u201d the Princess of Wales officially goes by \u201cCatherine.\u201d\n
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Kate and Hatton made global headlines after the future queen shared a photo of her and the young photographer hugging during their Oct. 2 meeting.\n
Three weeks earlier, Princess Kate announced she was \u201ccancer free\u201d and had completed the chemotherapy she began after being diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in March.\n
Hatton received her cancer diagnosis in January after doctors discovered she had an aggressive desmoplastic small round cell tumor. According to the BBC, doctors told her she had anywhere between six months to three years to live.\n
William and Kate invited Hatton to Windsor Castle to photograph an investiture ceremony, an event in which members of the royal family bestow honors to individuals for various outstanding achievements.\n
Hatton\u2019s mother, Vicky Robyana, shared the sad news of her daughter\u2019s death on Wednesday in a post on X.\n
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\u201cOur incredible daughter Liz died in the early hours of this morning. She remained determined to the last. Even yesterday she was still making plans,\u201d Robyana wrote. \u201cWe are so very proud of the kindness, empathy and courage she has shown in the last year.\u201d\n
\u201cShe was not only a phenomenal photographer, she was the best human, and the most wonderful daughter and big sister we could ever have asked for. No one could have fought harder for life than she did,\u201d Robyana continued.\n
\u201cThere is a gaping Liz-shaped hole in our lives that I am not sure how we will ever fill. We have so much gratitude to every single one of you, whether you offered to help, or liked or shared posts \u2014 you ensured Liz\u2019s last two months were her very best. She flew high until the end.\u201d\n
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Hatton\u2019s invite to photograph Will leading the investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle came after Robyana made an appeal on social media for any \u201cphotography based opportunities\u201d that could \u201ccreate a lifetime of memories\u201d for her daughter and help complete the teen\u2019s \u201cphotography bucket list\u201d in the time she had left.\n
Kate, a self-described \u201centhusiastic amateur photographer\u201d and the patron of the Royal Photographic Society, and Prince William shared photos of their meet and greet with Liz on social media.\n
\u201cA pleasure to meet with Liz at Windsor today. A talented young photographer whose creativity and strength has inspired us both,\u201d the pair said.\n
\u201cThank you for sharing your photos and story with us. \u2764\ufe0f W&C.\u201d\n
Hatton posted her personal thoughts about the day on Instagram.\n
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\u201cSuch a lovely, genuine and kind people, I\u2019m over the moon that my family and I had this experience,\u201d the teenager wrote on her Instagram story under a photo of herself hugging the Princess Catherine.\n
Hatton spoke further about the experience meeting the royals the following day during an interview with BBC Radio 4. \u201cTalking to them was amazing \u2018cause it was like talking to anyone, like just a normal person,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was no sort of grandeur about them, there was just humanity and kindness.\u201d\n
Hatton\u2019s mother has asked that people remember her daughter by sharing one of her photos \u201con your social media, or in real life, however you can.\u201d\n
\u201cLet\u2019s let her go out with a bang,\u201d Robyana wrote on X.\n
She asked anyone posting on social media to use the hashtag #LizHatton.\n
The family has also called on the public help their fight to fund research into desmoplastic small round cell tumor.\n
\u201cWhether you can share, donate or raise funds \u2013 please be our village one more time,\u201d Robyana added.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kate Middleton and Prince William mourn \u2018brave and humble\u2019 teenage c@ncer patient after her de@th Kate Middleton and Prince William are mourning the death of Liz Hatton, the teenage cancer patient who inspired the royals after meeting her in October. Hatton passed away Wednesday at the age of 17 after battling a rare form of\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":100893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-100887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thefinejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/1841519248713089328-photo-1-oct-2-90890840.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefinejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefinejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefinejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefinejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefinejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100887"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thefinejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100896,"href":"https:\/\/thefinejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100887\/revisions\/100896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefinejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefinejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefinejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefinejournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}