Carey Mulligan has opened up about her grandmother’s dementia and it’s so powerful

Opening up in the most powerful way, British actress Carey Mulligan has spoken about grandmother’s dementia and it’s so moving.

This isn’t the first time that Mulligan has spoken about her experiences with dementia and Alzheimer’s. Earlier this year, the 31-year-old became the U.K.’s first global Dementia Friends Ambassador in a bid to encourage wider conversations with those affected by the illness and increase awareness and learning about the disease.

Mulligan spoke about how her grandmother was diagnosed with dementia 16 years ago, an experience she said has been confusing and saddening, but allowed her to meet with incredible people who support those suffering with illness.

Now Mulligan has opened up about her experiences with her grandmother and it’s so powerful.

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The Oscar-nominated star guest edited an episode of BBC Radio 4’s Today program in which she argued that people should continue to visit dementia patients even if the disease has progressed severely.

"I’ve certainly had it in my experience, that people with my grandmother have gone ‘well she doesn’t know me. It doesn’t matter that I don’t visit because she doesn’t know me, Mulligan said. "Every visit for the last seven years, she hasn’t recognised any of us. But when we have a good visit - and they’re not always good - when we leave, she won’t remember that we’ve been there but the sensation of being in company of someone who loves you is something we can’t deny."

Mulligan went on to say that there’s a “calmness” and “companionship” when you’re being taken care of by loved ones that never really goes away, and that that’s the argument for continuing to visit loved ones.

"There are moments of real joy. In the terrible terrible moments, there have been things that have made you laugh," she said. "It gets so awful and we’ve had terrible visits where we’ve all ended up in tears, and then there are the visits where something really magical happens."

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Carey Mulligan also wrote about her experiences in BBC Magazine.

“Time and again I hear reference to it as just being a natural part of ageing. And, unfortunately, it is often the butt of distasteful jokes,” she wrote. But dementia is a disease of the brain and it requires understanding, care and support.”

In the United States, more than 5 million people live with Alzheimer’s, and according to the Alzheimer’s Association one in three seniors die with Alzheimer’s or another dementia.

“It’s so important that everyone living with the condition is treated with the respect and dignity that they deserve,” Mulligan finished. 

“At the moment, there’s not nearly enough awareness about what dementia is and as a society we all have a duty to change that.” 

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