David on Ivan

David Cameron is quoted as saying about the diagnosis: "You are depressed for a while because you are grieving for the difference between your hopes and the reality".

He has also said: "There was a moment driving home from hospital and just thinking 'We are going to get through this. If we can't do a good job and look after him, then we have failed'."

On 22 May 2004, he wrote in the Daily Telegraph: "Ivan's epilepsy is so powerful he can fit for an hour at a time, his small body contorted, often screaming in agony. And with the epilepsy come cerebral palsy so severe that Ivan cannot move, sit up or hold on to anything or anybody. He cannot crawl, walk, or talk, and never will. Ivan is two- and he is my son. The point of writing this is not to seek sympathy. My wife, Samantha, and I have had that in welcome abundance. It is to tell a story about something that seems to be going badly wrong in this country [referring to the difficulty is dealing with bureacracy]."

In 2006, Cameron said: "A merciful God? These things are illogical. If anything it made me more religious. Obviously I pray for him (Ivan). The truth is the first person who says "some good will come of this" you want to thump really quite hard, but actually some good does come of even terrible things like this."

In December 2006, Cameron said: "I can't help thinking what it will be like if and when he's 18. We do our best to give him a good life, you sort of feel he's getting something out of it all....but profoundly disabled children, they often don't make it, to be brutal about it. They get a lot of chest infections, in the winter they're in and out of hospital the whole time."

Cameron (12 December 2006): "I help care for a severely disabled child - my son. It's what I do at the start of each day. It's sharpened my focus on the world of care assessments, eligibility criteria, disability living allowance, respite breaks, OTs, SENCOs, and other sets of initials.But I would not dare to call myself a carer. The work that full-time carers or those with little extra help do is unbelievable."

Cameron (23 January 2007): "I’ve seen for myself the incredible expertise of NHS nurses. Having a disabled son, going in and out of hospitals all the time – the care and attention of nurses is inspiring. I’ll never forget the people at St Mary’s Paddington, at Great Ormond Street and at the John Radcliffe in Oxford. There is nothing I can say or do to express my gratitude to them, nor my admiration for their professionalism and their compassion."

Cameron (Conference speech, 3 October 2007): "The one thing that lots of families rely on more than anything else, my own included, is the NHS, and when I think of the NHS I think of the people in it. I think of the care worker who turns up at our home three nights a week to look after my son and cares for him as if he was her own son. I think of the community nurses who help you fight for all the things you need for your family life. They understand that it’s not just about the child it’s about the family too. I think about the neurologist who was just desperate to give us a better quality of life and he wouldn’t stop until he found the answer. He got us back into hospital day after day, week after week. It must have played havoc with his figures for through put and out put and patient episodes and all the rest of it but he just wanted to do the right thing. That’s the spirit of the NHS that I think motivates everyone in our country."

Interview by Charles Moore with Cameron (Telegraph, 27 September 2008): "Hesitantly, I ask Cameron if they worry constantly that Ivan might suddenly die. He is not offended by the question. 'You’re quite philosophical about it. You know that children like Ivan never make it to old age. You live by the day. But he doesn’t want to give up. This little person just wants to keep going."

Giles Andreae (University friend): "Since Ivan, he does have a personal empathy with people whose lives have not gone as they would have liked. If you listen to one week of what it takes looking after Ivan, it beggars belief. There are a million complications. It really is a staggering thing. They spent aeons and aeons waiting in hospitals. You can spin the Ivan thing if you want. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't. It's unnatural for someone in Dave's position to be required to show that kind of patience, but they've given it, in spades. We don't know the half of it."