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Kate’s touching meeting with teen fighting rare cancer

The Princess of Wales shares a hug with teenager Liz Hatton.

The Princess of Wales shares a hug with teenager Liz Hatton. Photo: Kensington Palace

The Princess of Wales has taken another step back to public duties with a touching meeting with a teenager cancer sufferer at Windsor Castle.

Photos released by Kensington Palace show Kate and husband Prince William meeting 16-year-old Liz Hatton and her family on Wednesday (British time).

“A pleasure to meet with Liz at Windsor today,” the Prince and Princess of Wales wrote in a social media post, signed with their customary “W&C”.

“A talented young photographer whose creativity and strength has inspired us both. Thank you for sharing your photos and story with us.”

While the meeting is not being treated as an official engagement for the prince and princess, it was their first joint appearance this year.

It follows Kate revealing first her urgent abdominal surgery in January, then her long treatment for cancer.

In September, she released a video revealing her cancer treatment was over.

“I am however looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months when I can,” she said.

Liz, a keen photographer from North Yorkshire, has an aggressive form of cancer that has no form of standard treatment. Doctors told her in January that she had between six months and three years to live.

Her diagnosis prompted her to create a “bucket list” of all the things she wanted to photograph. They included taking pictures at a music festival, a fashion shoot and the rehearsal of a major musical.

Prince William learned of Liz’s story on a royal visit in London earlier this week.

He invited her to Windsor Castle to take photos of an investiture – where knighthoods and other honours are handed out – he was hosting on Wednesday.

That was followed by a private meeting with William and Kate.

Liz was joined by her mother Vicky Robanya, stepfather Aaron and brother Mateo for the day. She said she was “over the moon” after meeting the royals.

“Such lovely, genuine and kind people, I’m over the moon that my family and I had this experience,” she wrote on social media.

kate william liz hatton

Liz Hatton (centre) with Kate and William and her family. Photo: Instagram

The touching engagement was followed by another outing for Prince William later on Wednesday, when he celebrated his favourite football team, Aston Villa, enjoying a historic win over Bayern Munich.

Television footage showed William cheering and hugging those next to him at full-time at Villa Park, as his team beat the German giants  1-0 on Wednesday night in a repeat of its 1982 European Cup final win.

Before the Champions League match, William met Villa’s 1982 European Cup-winning squad at the ground, with the club posting on its social media account: “Royalty meets Aston Villa royalty.”

A post on the Prince and Princess of Wales’s X social media account read: “42 years on, our 1982 European Cup winning legends are here on an historic night for @AVFCOfficial.

“Ready for the first game on home turf in this year’s European adventure… #UTV (Up the Villa).”

-with AAP

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