Ivor Perl turned to the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre a few years ago when his wife of more than 60 years became ill.

“From literally the first day there was a tremendous weight lifted off my shoulders,” the Auschwitz survivor recalled in the appeal video for Tuesday’s HSC dinner at the Marriott Regents Park. “The Holocaust Survivors’ Centre has given me a tremendous new lease of life and brought me back into the fold.”

Entertainment at the dinner — which opened with a minute’s silence for the Pittsburgh attack victims — was from Elaine Paige, who performed a selection of her greatest hits, including Don’t Cry For Me Argentina and Memory. The singer chatted to HSC members at the end of the evening.

Since opening 25 years ago, the Hendon centre has provided social, practical and therapeutic support to its 500 members.

It receives up to 20 new referrals monthly.

The 260 guests raised £180,000 for the centre, whose manager, Aviva Trup, said afterwards that thanks to the support of the community, “we have been able to keep the doors of our unique centre open while growing our outreach programme”. The dinner proceeds “will go a long way to meeting our annual £500,000 deficit”.