A New England man with deadly kidney disease got a life-saving transplant, thanks to quick thinking New Yorkers, who flipped one friend’s tragedy into another’s hope.

James Driscoll, 33, of Merrimack, New Hampshire, had been struggling for months seeking a donor to replace his kidneys, fast-failing due to autoimmune Berger’s disease.

And about 500 miles south in suburban Washington, DC, vibrant 32-year-old Ashley Hardaway Theriot had just returned from vacation in Colombia when she suddenly went into seizures on Jan. 1.

‘It’ll take me a lot longer than a few days or weeks to fully process all of this.’

She died on Thursday, setting off a breath-taking chain of events that ended with a new kidney and lease on life for Driscoll.

“The fact this has been so crazy is absolutely not lost on me,” Driscoll told The Post on Wednesday. “It’ll take me a lot longer than a few days or weeks to fully process all of this.”

Theriot’s sudden passing last week shocked her Brooklyn pals Leah Kumayama and Maggie Saalfield, who all met while volunteering for the Peace Corps in Ukraine in 2007 and 2008.

Driscoll’s good fortune came through his long-time friendship with high school classmate Peter Saalfield, Maggie’s husband.

“Maggie was well aware we know someone desperately looking for a kidney,” Peter Saalfield said.

When Theriot fell ill, Kumayama rushed to Inova Alexandria Hospital in Virginia to comfort her pal’s loved ones – and was with them when the freelance travel writer died from a mysterious tear in a brain-stem artery.

Maggie Saalfield then popped the awkward question over the phone to Kumayama at the hospital: Would their pal’s family want to donate her kidney to Driscoll?

Kumayama said she had no problem making bold request to Theriot’s grieving family.

“At this point, Ashley had just passed away,” said Kumayama, 33. “It couldn’t have gotten any more uncomfortable. Nothing I was going to say was going to make us sadder.”

The question didn’t offend anyone on Theriot’s side.

“It wasn’t awkward or off-putting at all,” said Theriot’s sister Aimee Hardway, a 30-year-old pharmacist from Pensacola, Fla. “She (Ashley) would have wanted to help anyone. But the fact there’s any connection at all, to be able help a friend, is an added bonus.”

After Theriot’s loved ones signed off on a potential kidney transplant, Driscoll handed over all his personal information – through the Saalfields – to transplant doctors in northern Virginia.

Theriot’s kidney was a match.

“Pete (Saalfield) called me on Thursday and was very to the point: He had a friend (Theriot) who was a donor and she had suddenly passed away,” Driscoll said. “This (a possible transplant) was going to be moving fast. It was a long shot.”

Even though Theriot had been declared dead, she was on life support for several more days to keep her heart pumping and organs working and ready for transplant.

The kidney Driscoll received was among eight organs harvested from Theriot.

“He (Driscoll) was being strongly considered (for the transplant) on Friday night then on Saturday morning I got a text from James (saying to the effect), `I’m on my way to the hospital, I’ll let you know how it worked on the other side,” said Peter Saalfield. “It all happened just so fast.”

Driscoll spent all day in prep on Saturday and Theriot’s kidney arrived for surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston on Sunday.

And so far so good on the transplant.

Driscoll, who works in software sales, said he’d like to meet Theriot’s loved ones anytime and anywhere they want.

“I’ll leave it up to them but yes, I absolutely want to meet them and let them know, I’d be honored to have that chance,” Driscoll said.

“I want to convey how grateful and lucky I am to have family and friends like Pete who are thinking of me and that there are wonderful people like Ashley.”

Hardaway said her family is eager to meet Driscoll and urge him to globe trot like her sister – who had traveled to most of western Europe, Poland, Turkey, Thailand, Nicaragua just to name a new few far-flung places.

“We’ve been joking that he (Driscoll) has the most well-traveled kidney ever,” said Hardaway, who had planned to visit Iceland with her sister this summer.

“We just hope he’s going to be able to live his life to the fullest and maybe even travel the way she (Theriot) would have.”