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Son 'feels like a hero' after donating kidney

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A kosher butcher is recovering well after a transplant operation in which he received a new kidney donated by his son.

Sixty-two-year-old Menachem Haziza, who is well known in the north-west London community as the owner of Menachem's Kosher Butcher and Deli in Golders Green, needed the life-saving operation when 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.

On Tuesday both were recovering at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead.

Yossi said: "Everything has gone well. The doctors are ecstatic with the operation, and happy with both our progresses, and I feel like a hero.

"I've done the best thing I could. When I saw my dad he said to me 'I couldn't be more proud of you my son'. I told him he gave me life - how I could not help him."

Yossi broke the news that he was going to be his father's donor on a Shabbat morning last month.

He said: "Dad just cried when I told him, he was so glad. As a parent he has done everything you could hope for, so as a son, it is the ultimate mitzvah to help him."

Mr Haziza is expected to be in hospital for a week, while his son hopes to be home in the next few days.

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