Elton paid tribute to his late friend and his son’s godparent, Ingrid Sischy, at the Breast Cancer Research Foundation “Goes Wild” benefit at the Waldorf Astoria on April 12, 2016.

“I would like to pay a tribute to Ingrid tonight by mentioning her, but for all the other people [affected], because she’d hate [being talked about]. She’d say she’s ‘just one of hundreds of thousands of millions of people in the world who’ve had this disease,’” he said before performing “Tiny Dancer” for the crowd that included La La Anthony, Bethenny Frankel, Domenico Vacca, Misty Copeland, Vera Wang and Donna Karan. The event raised over $6.8 million for research.

“It’s because of this wonderful organization that every year puts on this event that raises money to go to the research ... to help people not have this disease anymore, and one day it will happen,” Elton said. “And so Ingrid didn’t die in vain. She died to help other people, and I love her and I miss her.”

BCRF chairman Leonard A. Lauder named a research grant after Elton for his 15 years of working with the foundation.

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