Life is good for Kresgeville native Vinny Vella.

He’s doing the award-winning journalism he loves at The Philadelphia Inquirer, he has a loving girlfriend, and he finds peace and calm through running 4 or 5 miles a week.

But for life to keep being good, Vella needs a kidney.

The 2008 Marian Catholic High School graduate has been diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis.

The disease causes scar tissue to develop on the small parts of the kidneys that filter waste from the blood.

He’s done a “complete lifestyle overhaul” to keep functioning: He’s lost 65 pounds, switched to a vegan diet to cut down on protein, stopped drinking alcohol, and he takes baking soda tablets twice a day to help filter his blood and medication to manage his blood pressure.

But that will only work short term.

“The real serious symptoms haven’t hit me,” he said.

“My doctor estimates that in 6 to 8 months, I will feel the full symptoms of kidney failure. Working will be difficult, and driving will be impossible.

“The bottom line is that I need to find a living donor,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

“It took me a lot to feel comfortable enough to ask for help. I’m a private person,” he wrote.

He recalls a friend telling him that “this is not something like asking for help moving a couch. This is serious.”

“I’m not seeking attention; I’m seeking help,” he said. “It was really humbling for me to ask folks for assistance. I’m glad and grateful for those who have offered to help.”

Vella, who turned 32 on Wednesday, had been having bad headaches, about one a month, for about six months, in the first half of 2020.

He thought they were migraines.

“The Saturday after Thanksgiving 2020, I had probably the worst headache of my life,” he said.

That Saturday the pain was excruciating, he said.

His girlfriend, video journalist Lauren Schneiderman, made him go to the emergency department.

“That saved my life,” he said. His blood pressure had skyrocketed.

Doctors wanted to run a dye test through his veins to see if he had any anomalies in his brain.

“It turned out they couldn’t do that because there was a problem with my kidneys,” Vella said.

The problem was revealed in a routine kidney function test done prior to the dye test.

Vella instead had a spinal tap, which ruled out any brain problems.

Doctors ordered a kidney biopsy.

“From there, they learned I had chronic kidney disease,” he said.

The unanswered question is why his kidneys were failing.

“That’s really the difficult part. They don’t know,” Vella said.

“My kidneys are really scarred, meaning they can’t filter my blood.”

He explained that focal segmental glomerulosclerosis has two forms: primary and secondary.

In the primary kind, the disease happens naturally, with no known cause.

Vella’s is the secondary type, which has any number of causes, including a genetic mutation or an autoimmune response.

“The doctor seems to think it won’t reoccur in a transplanted kidney,” Vella said.

The hardest thing about this whole process is that you reevaluate your entire life, and your plans for the future,” he said.

Vella, at 32, had to start to “think about future in more concrete terms, cognizant of my own mortality, and how I live my life, instead of being care free,” he said.

He’s grateful for the support of family, friends, and co-workers.

“My family has been very supportive. I live with my girlfriend, she’s essential. Friends have stepped up and been very supportive. My bosses at the Inquirer have made it clear they will support me with this, so I don’t have to worry about losing my job,” he said.

He is heartened by those who have offered to be tested to see if they would be compatible donors.

“That so many folks have come forward to offer that is really amazing, and not something I expected,” Vella said.

Anyone would is willing to be tested to see if they could donate a kidney is asked to contact Vella through his Facebook page, or email him through tneditor@tnonline.com.