Richard Estrin had retired after a successful career as a freelance hairdresser. On the surface, things should have been fine.

But he missed his work and with time on his hands, he began to ponder regrets in his personal life — not having married, or had children.

“I was taking pills for depression that I didn’t realise were not doing me any good,” he told the JC at mental health charity Jami’s dinner at Alexandra Palace, where the Bushey resident’s story was among those featured in the appeal film. “I just felt there was no hope.” At this point, he attempted suicide.

He was in hospital receiving specialist treatment when a Jami representative came to visit. “She was just fantastic,” Mr Estrin, 72, recalled. He began attending the Jami hub in Edgware for a creative writing group and felt immediately that “I was going to get better and it was going to be Jami that got me better”.

Three years on, he has made many new friends and now facilitates the creative writing group.

“It gives me something to look forward to every week. It’s like a second family.” He had agreed for his story to be told “to give back what they gave me. If it wasn’t for Jami, I wouldn’t be here today.”

The dinner raised some £330,000 towards the £3 million the charity needs to generate “just to maintain existing services — and demand is increasing”. Another of those featured in the appeal film was Nivi Feldman from Borehamwood, who said that “mental health was always a big thing in my life.

“I grew up with a mum who suffered from being bipolar. A few years ago she was so ill. In the middle of that I was pregnant and [with] all the stress I had a miscarriage.”

Her mother died a year ago; her father suffered a major stroke and is in recovery in Israel. Seeing the documentary The Stranger on the Bridge — about Jonny Benjamin’s search to find the passer-by who had stopped him from jumping off Westminster Bridge in 2008 — made her appreciate that many people had mental health issues.

She had been trying to set up support activities at her synagogue, Borehamwood and Elstree United, when she was alerted to Jami. She has also been involved in the creative writing programme at Edgware and confessed that until filming the video, she was unaware of Mr Estrin’s story. “Richard is the most comforting person,” she told the JC. “I thought he was a therapist.”

Indeed, “everyone was so accepting and warm and caring. It was literally the first time in a long time that I didn’t feel like a failure.”

Ms Feldman initially got involved as an ambassador. But as things deteriorated in her own life, she plucked up the courage to ask for support.

“The service they offer is amazing. I saw an occupational therapist one-on-one. Slowly they’ve helped me to develop skills to keep my mental health in place.

“I am now doing things I never did before. It’s amazing what they’ve done for me.”

New Jami chair Adam Dawson told the 340 guests that the charity had grown in 30 years to the point where it directly supported more than 1,300 people “with significant mental illness”. This was through its work in the community and in its social enterprise and mental health hubs, including its pioneering Golders Green café, Head Room.

And in the past 12 months, “our team of mental health professionals have provided over 27,000 separate service interactions. This can be anything from a one-to-one session with an occupational therapist, support from a trained peer support worker or a hospital visit”.

In addition, “we are very proud that in the last year we have supported nearly 50 people to return to education or employment and had over 4,000 participants in our education programmes.”

Evidence of the charity’s reach was that nearly 150 communities will be involved in this weekend’s Mental Health Awareness Shabbat. And following the Football Association’s “Take A Minute — Heads Up” initiative, Maccabi league fixtures will kick off a minute late on Sunday allowing players and spectators to focus on their mental health.

The dinner guest speaker was Sir Brian Leveson, who looked back on his legal career, including his chairing of the public inquiry into the practices and ethics of the British press in the wake of the hacking scandal. He said it had been an insight into human behaviour — and misbehaviour — and he had quickly appreciated the impact on the lives of both famous and ordinary people, such as the McCanns and the Dowlers.