Woman to donate kidney to trainer

BRUNSWICK – As Ellen Souviney’s personal trainer, Will Smith helped her shed 55 pounds. Six dress sizes later, the thankful woman is now planning to donate a kidney to Smith.

A virus caused Smith’s kidneys to fail in 1999. Since then, the former world-class bodybuilder has had to adapt to a restricted diet, fatigue and three trips to the dialysis center each week.

Work at the Better U fitness center and hair salon helped Souviney’s health improve. While she witnessed her own progress, she watched Smith struggle to find the strength to perform the simplest tasks – whether climbing a flight of stairs or taking his children out for ice cream.

Smith, 37, had hoped for a cadaver kidney the last two years.

“I didn’t want people to think I was soliciting a kidney,” Smith said. “How do you ask a person to give you part of themselves? I just couldn’t do it.”

Souviney, meanwhile, told herself she would take a compatibility test if Smith became seriously ill. But after seeing his condition up close for months, she realized the time had already come.

“I just wanted to see Will be healthy,” Souviney, 46, said. “He’s changed my life. It’s not that I feel I owe him anything, but I want to help change his life. It’s just the right thing to do.”

Souviney took the test, and against the odds – as slim as one in 50,000 – turned out to be a perfect match. Smith’s family members turned out to be incompatible or not in good enough health.

If all goes according to plan, doctors at Maine Medical Center in Portland will perform the transplant on Oct. 2. That day will seem like a new birthday for Smith.