YESTERDAY’S laying by the Bailiff of the foundation stone of Maison de Quetteville, the specialist dementia home, was in every sense a milestone event and one that marks a pivotal point in what has been a monumental undertaking.

Paraphrasing the Special Air Service motto, Who Dares Wins, the Bailiff said, ‘who dares – and cares – wins’. And in many senses this project was a leap of faith and not just because it is spearheaded by the Methodist Homes for the Aged.

Making it happen required many elements falling into place, often against the odds, and the public side of it, the Maison Million Home Appeal, is just part of the overall funding required.

Nevertheless, the money that islanders continue to find to back this particularly worthwhile cause is vital because it provided the pump-priming capital to enable the building to start. And as guests at the foundation stone laying yesterday discovered, contractors R. G. Falla have made strides in getting the building up above ground.

Raising a million pounds is an enormous undertaking and when this newspaper undertook to launch the appeal, it did so with some trepidation because the target was so high.

News, also yesterday, that opera star Jose Carreras’s spectacular fund-raising performance in the autumn was a sell out within two hours means, however, that the balance to be found is now far more manageable – ‘just’ a couple of hundred thousand. Perhaps the real point is that money continues to flow in from generous islanders.

Why? Because dementia is a terrible disease that not only robs sufferers of their dignity, their memory, their reasoning and, ultimately, their life, it also impacts on all the loved ones around them.

Completion of Maison de Quetteville means that there will be more much needed facilities in which sufferers will be well cared for, respected and understood. And as anyone with direct experience of a dementia patient will know, retaining that respect and understanding as the disease takes hold can be challenging indeed.

When the home is completed, islanders will be able to look back and reflect that it was a true community effort in which daring to care really paid dividends.