David Cameron spends election eve supporting dementia charity.

It was strange on the eve of polling day to go to a dinner in London hosted by Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK),  and listen to a rousing speech from none other than David Cameron.

Mr Cameron has taken something of a low profile since he stepped down as Prime Minister almost a year ago.  I understand that he has been writing his memoirs and taking time for a well-deserved rest.  He certainly looked as though he was in good form yesterday evening, and I think he had lost a little weight!

The reason for his brief emergence into the public eye was that in January this year, Mr Cameron became the President of ARUK, the UK’s leading dementia research charity.  During his time in office he drove the subject of dementia higher up the world’s agenda by focussing on the issue as chairman of the G8 in 2013.  He also launched the charity’s five year £100m Defeat Dementia fundraising campaign, and led a government initiative to set up new research facilities at a number of academic centres in the UK.

Although most of his speech was taken up with dementia related topics, he did open proceedings by saying that it was odd not to be looking forward to attending his 'count’ tomorrow.  I did not sense that he was particularly worried about this however, as he recalled the pain of sitting on gym equipment in a school hall for hours waiting for the declaration of the results.

It is good to see David Cameron making this big commitment to fighting the disease that is now the number one killer of women and number two killer of men in the UK.

Alzheimer’s Research UK is one of the fastest growing medical research charities in the country, with a current £33m portfolio of projects underway at leading universities in the UK and around the world. Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2017, and with a research legacy of £80m across over 650 projects, the charity is at the forefront of global dementia research efforts. Its programmes include a world-first network of dementia Drug Discovery Institutes, innovative international partnerships between academia and industry, and award-winning public awareness campaigns, most recently Santa Forgot.

To learn more about ARUK click here.