NORWAY — Renee Banovich didn’t bat an eye when she found out her stepmother, Shirley Banovich, needed a kidney.

On Sept. 6, the two Norway women headed to Maine Medical Center in Portland for the surgeries.

From Shirley’s home on Harrison Road — Renee lives less than a stone’s throw away — the two women sat down last week to talk about their upcoming surgeries. 

Before they delved into too many details, they showed off their brightly colored nails that they had done to mark the occasion. Shirley’s were hot pink and across two nails it read, “Thank you Renee.” On her ring fingers two kidneys were painted. Renee’s were bright green and blue yin and yang, with her ring fingers sporting the green kidney disease awareness ribbon.

The family knew the need for a kidney transplant was coming eventually. Shirley has had polycystic kidney disease for more than 30 years. It’s a hereditary, genetic disease — she has lost three brothers and a sister to it — that causes the kidneys to enlarge because of fluid-filled cysts.

“I found out (I had it) because I wanted to donate a kidney to my sister and I couldn’t do it,” Shirley said in her thick Tennessee accent. “I’ve done well for the last 30 years until last year when my kidneys started failing and when they starting failing, they went down fast.”

Shirley’s daughter, who still lives in Tennessee, has the disease as well and will have both of her kidneys removed.

“Hers have gotten so big they’re smothering her other organs,” Shirley said. “Hers are compressing her lungs so she (can) hardly breathe. Mine are already extremely big, but they’re not compromising my other organs yet.”

Even so, Shirley, who will turn 65 this month and has been traveling to Lewiston three times a week for roughly a year for dialysis. Renee drives her.

“Dialysis is very hard on your body. It’s hard on your family,” Shirley said.

She said she didn’t ask anyone to donate a kidney. Renee’s youngest daughter offered up hers, but when she learned she couldn’t lift anything for six weeks, she knew it wouldn’t work because she has two babies to care for.

“’Let me see what my blood type is,'” Renee remembered saying. “‘It would be easier for me because I don’t work and I don’t have little kids.’” 

It turned out that Renee and Shirley share the same blood type: O negative.

“She has never had a second thought (about donating),” Shirley said. “I think some people have tried to convince her not to.”

Renee agreed. She lost her daughter in a car accident in 2007 and wanted to donate a kidney, anyway, even if her stepmother wasn’t a match. Renee said her two sons served in the military, one in the Army and the other in the Marines with tours in Iraq.

“I guess we’re just into sacrificing,” she said. “You hate to see people go through a loss. It’s a hard thing to go through.”

“They’re a giving family, thank God,” Shirley said.

Renee said it’s unfortunate people aren’t aware that they can give the gift of life and help others.

“They should go into the dialysis rooms and see people. It’s very hard,” Shirley said.

Neither woman was nervous about the surgery. Shirley said she wanted to put dialysis behind her.

“I can’t express my words because I am so grateful,” Shirley said.

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