Ivan's Short Life Gave David and Samantha More Than His Death Could Ever Take Away ; the Gq Editor Spent Months with the Tory Leader ... Here He Recalls the Love and Devotion the Camerons Lavished On Their 'Beautiful Boy'

Mail on Sunday › March 01, 2009

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Summary

LIVING with their son Ivan was never easy, not that you'd ever hear David or Samantha Cameron say so. Why would they? He was their son, their beautiful brown-eyed, oh-so cherished son. Born in 2002, with cerebral palsy and one of the most severe forms of epilepsy, Ivan had needed round-the-clock, care almost from the first moment. He was unable to walk or talk, and - tragedy upon tragedies - rarely smiled. For four years he didn't smile at all, but when his medication was altered in 2006, his moods altered too, fundamentally changing the mood in the Cameron household as a whole. 'When he started to smile it was just the most amazing thing,' said David at the time.

'It made all of us so much happier.' I spent a lot of time with David Cameron between the summers of 2007 and 2008, for a project we were working on together. We met many times to talk: in his office, in Parliament and at his house in London and his constituency house in Oxfordshire. I was given unprecedented access and I think I got to know David in a very particular way. Whenever we met, and whenever Ivan was mentioned, he behaved like any other decent father - with frustration, with pride, and with love. An awful lot of love..

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Ivan's Short Life Gave David and Samantha More Than His Death Could Ever Take Away ; the Gq Editor Spent Months with the Tory Leader ... Here He Recalls the Love and Devotion the Camerons Lavished On Their 'Beautiful Boy'

Ivan could never be left alone. Recalling the moment they were told of Ivan's disabilities, David said: 'The news hits you like a freight train.

You are depressed for a while because you are grieving for the difference between your hopes and the reality. But then you get over that because he's wonderful.' Without experiencing it yourself, it is impossible to know how such a tragedy affects a parent - or a family, come to that - but, having spent time with David and Sam, it was very easy for me to see how Ivan informed their life together, and how in some ways it will always define it.

Our own youngest daughter was born with consid...

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