My 90-year-old cousin has lived in a self-care unit at Pallarenda for the past 20 years. Now she has been told she must move out, as the units are to be demolished as substandard. She has been offered the price she paid 20 years ago, minus costs, which will not be half enough to buy her a similar unit in another facility. Legal advice is likely to cost her heaps.

Garden Settlement Pallarenda, Townsville provided my dear friend with the freedom to live his life until the time he died. The staff were amazing, and I salute them. My friend died in April, after being in the home for some 10 years, and was allowed to keep his little dog until she died before him.