Carey Mulligan urges people to keep visiting relatives suffering from dementia

ACTRESS Carey Mulligan has urged people to continue visiting relatives with dementia, even if they are no longer recognised.

She is an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society and told of her relationship with her grandmother - who is affected by the disease.

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She spoke of her calming visits with her grandmother Margaret on Radio 4's Today programme yesterday.

Mulligan said despite her grandmother no longer recognising her or her mother, their visits are beneficial.

The actress, who starred in The Great Gatsby and An Education, was adamant that the symptoms of the disease should not stop people visiting their relatives.

She said: "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'.

"Every visit for the last seven years, she hasn't recognised any of us.

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"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 the company of someone who loves you is something we can't deny."

"There's a calmness, there's a companionship: these really fundamental feelings of being loved, being taken care of by people and family who really love you, I think that's something that regardless of how progressed your dementia is stay with you.

"That's a real argument for people going to visit loved one regardless of how far progressed their disease is."

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This is not the first time the actress had publicly spoken out about her grandmother and dementia.

She previously told of how her grandmother moved to a care home after becoming more forgetful as the disease progressed.

A new study has found a single protein could cure Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

And earlier this month it was reported elderly patients are being left stranded in hospital for up to a year due to delays in finding them home care.

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