'Wherever we are, she'll be with us'

The mother of a teenage photographer who died from cancer last month has paid tribute to her daughter, saying "wherever we are, she'll be with us".

Liz Hatton, 17, from Harrogate, began a photography bucket list appeal in January after she was diagnosed with an aggressive desmoplastic small round cell tumour.

She died on 27 November, and was praised by the Prince and Princess of Wales as a "brave and humble young woman".

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, her mother Vicky Robayna said she was a "joy to be around all the time, and the most incredible big sister any child could ever ask for".

Liz was pictured being hugged by Kate at Windsor Castle in October after being invited to take pictures of William at an investiture.

Just a few weeks before she died, Liz worked with one of her photography heroes, Rankin, at a photoshoot with professional models.

Ms Robayna said: "She was just so determined and never, ever complained, she never said, 'Why me? This shouldn't be happening to me'.

"She just got up every day and took every opportunity that came her way with excitement and glee.

"It didn't matter how tired she was or how grotty she was feeling, she got out of her bed and made the most of whatever wonderful opportunity came her way.

"It's unbelievable to us in lots of ways that so many people are interested in our little girl, it was completely alien to her - she could never really understand why people were interested."

Ms Robayna said the family hoped to continue Liz's mission of raising awareness of her rare illness.

She said: "Raising that awareness and raising funds through the JustGiving campaign is giving us all a focus, to try and raise those funds, because there are no ring-fenced funds for desmoplastic small round cell tumour in the UK, the only funds out there are funds raised by families.

"We had no idea what we were dealing with, there was no way to find centralised information aimed at families and what we hope is to set up a charity where we can provide support to families on diagnosis but where we can also fund research to try and get those better treatments and give more people a chance to live."

Paediatric oncologist Prof Bob Phillips told the BBC researchers were "constantly looking" for rare cancers such as desmoplastic small round cell tumours.

He said: "Each sort of brand of cancer needs a different sort of treatment and some cancers like desmoplastic small round cell tumour don't really respond that well to chemotherapy.

"If they spread in other places the surgery becomes difficult, and we're not sure that they respond that brilliantly to radiotherapy either.

"While we're doing the treatments that we've got, we need to maximise the chance that you have of living that life like Liz did."

Liz's brother Mateo paid his own tribute to his sister, saying she was "always there for me when I needed her".

In a video message aired on Breakfast, the youngster said: "Not many people get the opportunity to take the photos that she did.

"Barely any people even realised that she had cancer, how amazing they were. They just looked like a famous person's photography.

"If I could say anything I'd probably say raise awareness about desmoplastic small round cell tumour, because it's all my sister ever wanted, for other people to survive from it.

"After like four months we got told she was going to die eventually so all she wanted from then was to raise awareness about it."

Ms Robayna said Christmas remained an "undecided mission" this year - and the family had planned to mark the season earlier in the autumn.

She said: "Our Christmas was actually supposed to be the morning of the day Liz died.

"Mateo's one Christmas wish was to have Liz here and we had planned to make that happen but unfortunately it didn't, so I'm not quite sure what Christmas looks like this year.

"We might go away somewhere, we might stay at home, but wherever we are, she'll be with us."

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