She realised something was wrong when her grandmother struggled to use her knife and fork . Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan subsequently watched Alzheimer ’ s disease take hold of Margaret Booth . Now , 14 years after Mrs Booth , affectionately known as Nans by the actress , was diagnosed , Miss Mulligan has revealed her anger at how dismissively dementia sufferers are treated . Hollywood actress Carey Mulligan says more needs to be done to raise awareness of dementia . Her grandmother Margaret Booth , who she is pictured with here on a charity walk , suffers with the illness . The 29-year-old said she watched as her grandmother , a former teacher , develop problems with her memory . Mulligan , a patron of the Alzheimer 's Society and said her gran has n't recognised her in at least five years . According to the actress , 29 , there is a ‘ shame or humour ’ attached to the illness , which causes memory loss and language problems . Despite being one of the greatest influences in Miss Mulligan ’ s career , having encouraged her to act and sing as a child , Mrs Booth is unaware of the extent of her granddaughter ’ s fame and appears to have struggled to recognise her for about eight years . Speaking about the disease , which affects 850,000 in the UK , Miss Mulligan said : ‘ It ’ s quite quickly disregarded as being a sort of age-related thing , ‘ Oh , granny ’ s lost her marbles ’ – that sort of throwaway comment about somebody who has a brain disease… There ’ s not an awful lot of awareness in society. ’ Mrs Booth was once a gifted piano player and a geography teacher , who took a great interest in her grandchildren ’ s education . But she began having trouble remembering things and would sometimes struggle to find her own home . And it means she has missed out on witnessing the success of Miss Mulligan ’ s career , which has seen her star in films including The Great Gatsby , Pride and Prejudice and her latest film Far From the Madding Crowd , which is out next month . The interview with Carey Mulligan appears in the latest edition of the Radio Times . Recalling watching the disease take hold , Miss Mulligan said : ‘ One of the last times that we were at home together with her , we had a meal and she sat down and she looked at her knife and fork , and she didn ’ t know what they did. ’ Ms Booth now lives in a residential home in Pontardawe , Wales . When one of Miss Mulligan ’ s films is on television , it is played by her carers , who wrote to Miss Mulligan to tell her ‘ Nans is very proud ’ of her when she won a BAFTA award for An Education . And every time Miss Mulligan begins a new play , such as Starlight which she starred in last year , her mother sends her a good luck opening night card , signed ‘ from Nans ’ . Speaking about the touching tradition , Miss Mulligan told Radio Times : ‘ She ’ ll put a photo of Nans in there , too . It ’ s really sweet . It makes me super emotional. ’ Miss Mulligan , who is married to Marcus Mumford , lead singer of the band Mumford & Sons , first revealed her grandmother was suffering from Alzheimer ’ s in 2013 , as she became a patron of the Alzheimer ’ s Society . Carey Mulligan meets a fan at the Far From The Madding Crowd premiere . Every time she begins a new play her mother sends her a good luck opening night card signed 'from Nans ' with a photo of her grandmother . She said she wanted to make people ‘ more aware in their daily lives of those who could be suffering with the disease ’ . And last year she wheeled her grandmother around a ‘ memory walk ’ in aid of the charity . Revealing her grandmother ’ s diagnosis , Miss Mulligan told Channel 4 : ‘ She hasn ’ t recognised me for about five or six years . That ’ s really hard . It ’ s really sad . But especially for my mum and my aunt and uncle . ‘ She was a geography teacher and she was very passionate about our education and would always ask us about what GCSEs we were doing , what A-levels we were doing . ‘ And I remember her one day not being able to remember the different subjects I was taking for A-level and I remember thinking that was something she cared so much about , that wouldn ’ t be something she easily forgot . 'And then it progressed from there , she would struggle to find her way home when she went out walking . ’
Carey Mulligan 's grandmother suffers from Alzheimer 's disease . Comment: Mulligan , 29 , has urged for greater awareness of the illness in society .