Billboards going up across metro Atlanta for teen seeking kidney

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Billboards are going up across metro Atlanta to find a kidney donor for a Gwinnett County high school student.

Ramonie Smith has spent much of her life as an advocate and spokesperson for people needing transplants, but now, for the second time in her young life, she finds herself needing help.

Channel 2's Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Tony Thomas met with the Duluth High School student Tuesday and said that at first, she seemed to be an average teenager.

She likes to record videos for social media and do such things as the spicy noodle challenge with friends.

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"Oh, my God, these are hot," she can be heard saying in a video as she took a big bite of noodles laced with spices.

But behind the videos and laughter is a life-threatening situation.

"This is my machine," Smith said as she showed Thomas the dialysis machine to which she is hooked up for 12 hours a day. She also showed Thomas a shopping bag full of pills that she takes every day to help keep her alive. At one point, her mother said, Smith was on 164 doses of medication a week.

"If I don't do it, I die. If I do it, I live, so I gotta do it," Smith said.

She has a rare kidney disease called Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, or FSGS. She received a kidney transplant at the age of 5, but the illness came back in just a few days and now she is in need of another transplant.

"This disease that she has -- there is no known cause or cure for it," Smith's grandmother, Brenda Sharpe, said.

Over the years, the teen has gone to the White House to meet President Obama and to NFL football games to meet Peyton Manning. She appeared in public service announcements seeking help for those in need of transplants.

Now, her picture is going up on billboards around Metro Atlanta. One billboard company, OutFront Media, has donated space on freeway signs in South Fulton and North Cobb counties. Those ads, which are already running, feature a picture of Smith and a phone number that potential donors can call to be tested to check if they are a match. The number is 317-492-1217.

Another company is also donating billboard space and will have ads running in the next few days in other locations around the area.

"Only one-percent of the population would be a match for her," said her mother, Melissa Smith.

"I'm very hopeful. It's one-percent, and that's what I think is cool because it's one-percent, you have to be the one," Smith said.

Cox Media Group