DAVID Cameron has told how heartbreaking scenes at West Oxfordshire care homes fueled his life-long quest to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease.

In a rare interview since leaving office after the EU referendum, the former Prime Minister said the experiences in his old Witney constituency shaped his views forever.

Recalling his pre-Prime Ministerial days as a humble constituency MP, Mr Cameron told the FT Weekend: "I just saw care home after care home in my constituency filling up with people with dementia who were entering a world of darkness, where they'd become completely disconnected from their surroundings, their relatives, their friends and their lives.

"And you could see new floors being built on to these care homes for dementia patients only.

"I used to go around them... It was meeting the 60-year-old daughter of the 80-year-old man who was in the care home, who didn't recognise her, didn't know where he was, didn't know what was happening to him. And this world of darkness you just saw getting bigger and bigger."

Oxford Mail:

David Cameron meeting staff and residents at Freeland House care home in Witney as Prime Minister.

During his time as Prime Minister, Mr Cameron made Alzheimer's research a priority, doubling government funding for it.

In January he became president of Alzheimer's Research UK.

Now he is hoping to continue shaping policy with his charity role.

He continued: "So many people just think, well, dementia it's just a part of ageing; it's just a natural thing that happens. It isn't. Dementia is a set of symptoms, cognitive impairment and losing your memory and all the rest of it. But it's caused by diseases of the brain."

Aside from his reminiscences of care home visit, Mr Cameron was reticent on his time in office.

An FT editor told BBC Radio 4's Today program this morning that Mr Cameron clearly did not want to speak about the referendum which ended with his resignation, and that he seemed to feel uncomfortable even talking about his political career.

Despite that, Mr Cameron is currently working on his memoirs which are due to be published next year.