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A Quincy veteran is searching for a kidney donor after his dreams of serving in the U.S. military were cut short.
Aleksander Pallko, 40, has dreamed about serving as a U.S. Marine ever since he saw one while working as a civilian chef in the U.S. Embassy in his native country of Albania 13 years ago.
“From the first moment that I saw them, I said OK, one day I want to wear that uniform,” he told 7News Boston.
Pallko emigrated to the United States in 2011 and worked on learning English, physics, and chemistry. Though he was too old to join the marines, he joined the U.S. Army in 2014.
“That was the biggest day of my life,” he told 7News. “Something that changed my life forever.”
“I was living my dream. I was living my dream every day,” Pallko told WCVB.
Only two and a half years later, Pallko found himself facing a medical discharge when he was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease — a disease with no known cure.
“Hearing that word was the worst thing. Very devastating for me,” he told WCVB.
“The condition makes me feel so tired and some days I lay down, and I’m not able to do anything,” he told 7News. “Life isn’t fair.”
Since Pallko was recently diagnosed with renal failure and is searching for a kidney donor. He’s been on the transplant list for five years, and is now working with DOVE Transplant, a veterans service group, to find a match.
“If it was not going to be for my condition, my disease, even to this day I was going to be in the U.S. Army serving,” Pallko told 7News. “I’m not trying to live forever but I’m looking for a kidney donor so I can live longer and work toward my dreams.”
Anyone considering becoming a living kidney donor should reach out to DOVE directly at www.dovetransplant.org (email: [email protected] or call at 646-245-2894) or the Mass. General Hospital Kidney Transplant Clinic where Pallko is on the transplant waitlist (check out mghlivingdonors.org or call the kidney transplant program at 877-644-2860 or kidney donor program at 617-643-7193).
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