David Cameron: After grief, beautiful memories break through

Ivan, the son of former British Prime Minister David Cameron (58), died in 2009 at the age of just six. The boy suffered from cerebral palsy and epilepsy and had the rare Ohtahara syndrome. Cameron, among other things, remembered Ivan, whom he loved very much, but also the difficult time before and after the death of his child.

The black clouds disappear

“I remember the great blessing it is to have your first child,” says the politician. “Despite all the trouble he had with the seizures and the cerebral palsy and everything else, you still remember that beautiful, smiling boy that you had on your lap and that you cared for and loved.” The special thing about grief is that “in the beginning there are only black clouds. But after a while the happy memories break through.” So today he thinks of his son, who would have turned 22 this year.

Caring for Ivan was not easy during his lifetime and completely changed the family’s life. “It’s hard enough raising children, but when you have a child who has seizures every day, is fed through a tube, and needs care all night and all day,” explains Cameron, who still attends today He could remember “the chaos” that partly determined his life at the time, even though the family had received a lot of help. “You’re in hospital, then you’re home, then you’re back. At that point I had just become an MP. I remember turning up to debates in the House of Commons completely exhausted because I had been in St. Mary’s Paddington [ein Krankenhaus, Red.] had spent.”

“We have three happy, healthy children,” he can say today. Cameron has been married to his wife Samantha (53) since 1996. In addition to the late Ivan, the couple has children Florence, Arthur and Nancy, some of whom are already adults.