Undergoing a kidney transplant would be a far better option than going on dialysis three times a week, he said, “as this would affect my ability to work, and I would have financial difficulties. I don’t want to be a burden on society.”
The urgency of Aryeh’s situation is also because recipients who receive a kidney before they have to go onto dialysis generally live longer than those who don’t, according to the NHS.
As well as running his own company, which delivers health and safety training, Aryeh is a volunteer emergency responder with the East of England Ambulance Service. This means carrying out life-saving procedures before an ambulance arrives. He also teaches first aid to new ambulance workers.
Aryeh recently returned from driving a patient to Italy in a private ambulance as the patient was too unwell to fly. He has previously volunteered on a joint project between the Ambulance Wish Foundation UK and US Chesed, taking people nearing the end of their life to their dream destination.
Aryeh volunteering with the ambulance service[Missing Credit]
But Aryeh’s life-saving work extends beyond the ambulance service, and during lockdown, he administered thousands of Covid vaccines.
In a heartfelt plea, Aryeh told the JC: “All my work and so much of my voluntary work involves saving lives, preventing accidents or treating people after they have had them. I now need someone to help save mine.”
Anyone over the age of 18 – or 16 in Scotland – and in good physical and mental health can potentially become a living donor.
According to the NHS, around 30 out of 100 kidney transplants are from living donors, and nearly everyone is able to lead a normal healthy life with just one well-functioning kidney.
On average, a kidney received from a living donor will work better than a kidney from a deceased donor and there will be less risk of rejection.
Removal of the kidney will usually involve keyhole surgery, and the donor will be in hospital for three to five days. They will not require long-term medication, says the NHS.
Aryeh with his daughter Sharon and his late mother, Isabel[Missing Credit]
Aryeh has four children and 13 grandchildren, three of whom were born with only one kidney. He said that while the condition had skipped a generation, he would find it difficult to ask any of his children, all of whom live in Israel, to be his kidney donor.
“Two of my children may need to donate a kidney to their own children one day, and my other two children have very young kids, and they can’t be away from them, in a hospital in another country. Also, on top of everything that is going on in Israel, with terrorist attacks and sirens, I just don’t want to put additional pressure on them.”
The divorcé added that he was also not in a position to ask his partner as she was currently experiencing her own health problems.
Aryeh giving first-aid training[Missing Credit]
“I am reaching out to the community here as this is the community I live in and the community I contribute to. A living donor would potentially be saving me from death. The Chazal (Sages) says that whoever saves one life saves a whole world. My situation is urgent. I really do hope I can be at my grandson’s bar mitzvah in Israel in June.”
If you are interested in being a living kidney donor for Aryeh, you can contact the transplant centre on 020 7317 7604 or rf-tr.rldn@nhs.net.
To learn more about being a living donor, go to:
The National Kidney Foundation: www.kidney.org/
or the NHS www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/organ-transplantation/kidney/
Aryeh Goldberg with his son Itai[Missing Credit]