Joy for kosher butcher as son donates organ

A kosher butcher searching for a kidney sounds as if it could be the start of a joke, but for Menachem Haziza it was anything but.

Sixty-two-year-old Mr Haziza, who is well known in the north-west London community as the owner of Menachem's Kosher Butcher and Deli, needed a new kidney after his diabetes suddenly worsened.

After attempts to find a match failed, his son Yossi submitted himself to testing without telling his father. Doctors told him he was a perfect match and gave the green light for the operation to go ahead.

Yossi, 34, said: "My dad is on dialysis four times a day and is not in a good way at all. It was awful see his hopes destroyed each time he got bad news about not finding a match. I started to think about whether there was something I could do.

"But I didn't want to get his hopes up, and I knew he would worry, so I got myself tested without telling anyone and it came back that I was a 100 per cent match. I was so happy."

Yossi broke the news to his father on a Shabbat morning last month. He said: "Dad just cried when I told him, he was so glad. He has done everything for us - worked hard all his life in the business, and we have carried it on in his name since he has not been well.

"As a parent he has done everything you could hope for, so as a son, it is the ultimate mitzvah to help him."

The transplant is due to take place in two weeks' time at the Royal Free Hospital. "I'm not worried - the doctors and everyone I've spoken to have been so reassuring," said Yossi. "I'm just glad I'm able to do this for my dad and for my family."