Soon after taking office as president, Reagan began implementing sweeping new political and economic initiatives. Reagan's doctors said that he began exhibiting overt symptoms of the illness in late 1992 or 1993, several years after he had left office. For example, Reagan repeated a toast to Margaret Thatcher, with identical words and gestures, at his 82nd-birthday party on February 6, 1993. Former President Reagan returns to the White House to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush, 1993.