Harrogate teenager with cancer will fulfill his photography bucket list

The family of an aspiring teenage photographer diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer have praised the “phenomenal” support she received to help her fulfill her photography bucket list.

Sixteen-year-old Liz, from Harrogate, was diagnosed with a desmoplastic small round cell tumor in January.

Her mother, Vicky Roboyna, said doctors told her daughter she had between six months and three years to live.

Liz received the life-changing news two days after visiting a GP for abdominal pain over the Christmas holidays. Following examinations, doctors discovered that she had tumors in her ovaries and liver.

“It’s just a little change from normal, that’s the simplest way to put it,” Liz said.

“Before, I was very oriented towards schoolwork. Today, I have completely stopped all schoolwork. If I only have about three years to live, what's the point of having a bachelor's degree? “

According to the bone and soft tissue cancer charity Sarcoma UK, an average of 12 cases of desmoplastic small round cell tumor are diagnosed each year in England.

“It has changed our lives in an unexpected way,” said Vicky, an autism specialist teacher at a school in North Yorkshire.

“We were visiting universities a month before, everything happened very suddenly. Her life was school, school, school. She was going to study [Oxford and Cambridge]”.

Vicky said she and Liz's father Aaron told their daughter to “follow your heart from now on”.

Liz's family had hoped to send her to Los Angeles to meet her favorite photographer, David Suh, but had difficulty finding medical insurance for the trip.

Instead, Liz and Vicky made a wish list of photography experiences.

Thanks to the help of X users, the family was inundated with offers which Vicky described as “phenomenal”.

“It completely blew us away. Liz has had some incredible opportunities that we would have never put on the list.”

Liz, who begins her fourth round of chemotherapy on Monday, is adapting photographic experiments into her treatment.

He was asked to photograph the Royal Marines and theater shows including Wicked and Cabaret. She's also already had one wish come true: watching an episode of her favorite TV show, Should I Lie To You?, while it's filming.

“I went with my dad and my friend and we got to hang out in the green room with the people from the show, it was amazing,” she said. “I came home and I didn’t think anything could be as good as this.”

Liz said another positive aspect of her diagnosis was becoming closer to her brother Mateo, eight.

“He’s very protective of me,” she said. “There’s definitely a lot of bad luck, but there are positives among the negatives.”

Liz started photography in Year 6 after saving up on her first camera and achieved the highest possible grade in the subject at GCSE, before starting A Levels at Harrogate Grammar School.

Vicky said her daughter's hobby had given her “focus” since her diagnosis.

“She is so nice, she always thinks of things to bring to the nurses on the ward.

“She's always thinking of others, not just herself, so it's really nice that other people have gone out of their way to help her – because that's just who she is.”