Tylah Wardrope loves her Poppa.

So much so, she was moved to write a song when he went into hospital for open heart surgery four years ago.

'You are who I want to be,” the song goes. 'So hold my hand and tell me you're still here.”

And Poppa is still here – John Barton pulled through, but it was a close thing and he remains a very sick man.

'I was devastated that I might be losing him,” says Tylah.

John is Tylah's grandfather, her Poppa.

'He's my hero, my idol. We do everything together.”

Hence the song.

The 67-year-old has spent a good chunk of his life serving others, running search and rescue, saving lives. So it's ironic there's no-one to save his life.

'Pretty much it in a nutshell really,” sighs John, the brains and effort behind Tauranga Youth Search and Rescue.

'A broken heart, a very broken heart.”

He's had numerous coronaries since 2013, open heart surgery in 2016, and he's on borrowed time.

'After a major heart attack during an angiogram a few months ago, they sent me home from Waikato Hospital because they can't do anything for me.”

Make the best of what you've got they told him, because it's not very long.

The man who's been hunting, shooting and searching all his life, can't even walk to his letterbox and back. But he's philosophical.

'That's the hand that's been dealt me.”

John's dicky heart nearly broke the young heart of Tylah.

She adores him.

'The weekend Tylah turned 14 she spent on a solo camp –Friday night, all day Saturday and Saturday night, in the bush on the Kaimai Range, all on her own.”

Tylah's friends apparently cheered and yahooed her back to camp on Sunday afternoon.

John likes that story because his veins flow green. He loves the bush.

And now the mantle has been passed to Tylah.

'I was very shy but YSAR helped me over that – got me doing stuff I never thought I was capable of doing.”

YSAR is about learning to survive, thrive and save lives in the bush, junior LandSAR, junior search and rescue.

It's John Barton's baby.

'In 2007, I was at an exercise in the Kaimai Range and I saw a whole lot of little people in orange hi-vis vests being winched aboard an Iroqois helicopter,” says John.

'They were kids.”

They were the Hamilton YSAR.

'Knew nothing about them,” says John, but he suspected evolution, progress, was going down.

'It stuck in my head.

'Because I had been at a search and rescue conference and all you could see was grey heads, bald heads and near deads.”

He suddenly recognised the need for youth, young and willing, and intelligent heads, to come through and replace the old hands.

John and some of his colleagues seized on the Hamilton model and the Tauranga Youth Search and Rescue was born.

Including Tylah – a shy but gifted piano and guitar player and songwriter.

'I went out with Poppa on one camp and fell in love with it. Then I was in YSAR getting over my shyness, doing stuff I never thought I was capable of doing, stuff the average teenager never gets to do.”

Tylah was also there in 2016 when John went to Wellington to pick up the Youth Group of the Year Award.

'That was the pinnacle,” says John. So he retired.

'The health was also failing and I was limited in what I could do or achieve.”

John's first experience with Search and Rescue was on the receiving end.

The man, who would later manage, coach and mentor in search and rescue, got lost in the Kaimanawas for two days. Oh, the embarrassment.

'I was sitting outside a hut when a helicopter dropped off some searchers to look for him. They asked me if my name was John and I said ‘yup'.”

Lost man found, job done. John was jammed in the back of the helicopter and flown out.

'That day I had my first chopper ride, my first ride in a police car and my first ride in an ambulance.”

There was also the thrill of being found and the delight at being reunited with family. The experience served him well in his own work with search and rescue.

'Now I love the bush too,” says Tylah.

'And I am very grateful and proud because Poppa has guided me to where I am today.”

And Tylah was moved to song to express that gratitude as John lay in a hospital bed recovering from major surgery.

'So many lives to save, so many lives to touch,” the song goes. 'You are who I want to be, so hold my hand and tell me you're still here.”

Perhaps they can sing a duo when they're doing a roadie next month. They're off to a search and rescue camp at Mangetopopo at Tongariro.

John is seizing the moment.

'We wouldn't miss it for the world. If I can't drive, Tylah can.”