'There's no more plumbing to be done.” That's the unsettling cold, hard reality that teenager Nakita Griffiths lives with. Grown-up issues, life and death issues.

'They've told me they can't do anything more for me.” Well, not until this 16-year-old Mount College student gets the call from Auckland's Greenlane Hospital and she's summoned for a heart transplant.

'It could be next week.” But then again it might not be for 15 or 20 years. She discusses life's uncertainties like she'd discuss a bout of flu. And she quite enjoys the shock value of her story.

'I get cold very easily and my lips turn blue. They even turn black. 'That's when you go into panic mode.”

This is a teenager ticking on just two of four cylinders. She has a rare and congenital heart defect called Hyperplastic Left Heart Syndrome. The left side of her heart is critically underdeveloped.

'I am trying to remember how mine works. Your blood goes through the left and right ventricle but my heart only has the right ventricle.”

And she's fingering the jagged scar that runs the length of her sternum as she thinks it through.

'Wow, what a beaut,” observes says the reporter. 'I know,” says the proud wearer. The scar's a badge of honour bestowed by surgeons who ensured the right side of her heart continues to pump blood to her lungs and rest of her body until she gets that transplant.

'I usually try to hide the scar because people see it and ask about it. 'And it gets tiring and frustrating having to explain everything over and over again.”

Nakita's name may not register but her image might. The Facebook photo of Nakita weeping buckets as she's lumped up Mauao by newfound friend Michael Beacall went viral. All the way back to Michael's native Liverpool. And for good reason.

Nakita has lived in the shadow of Mauao all her life. But while a girl with half a heart could get around the mountain, she couldn't get up it. 'I have only looked up there and thought about it.”

Nakita's favourite subject at school is sewing. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

There are a lot of things a girl living with half a heart can't do. 'I watch my sister Jessie playing netball, volleyball, running around. I so want to do it.” Heart kids so want to be normal, to be treated normally.

'Leave it to me,” said Michael, a young man with a thick Scouser accent and a hankering for a challenge. The 2IC at Mount Mellick had heard about the Mount Everest challenge, which sees participants run 30 times up Mauao in 50 days.

'I decided to cut it out in two days – 30 eight times in two days to equal the height of Everest. Then I would carry Nakita up on the last lap.”

'Hell yeah!” said Nakita. 'And I was counting down the days. 'Wednesday, not long to go. Saturday, one more day to go.”

Nakita thought ‘Mikey's' football friends would do the carrying. 'When he grabbed me I said: ‘Mikey what are you doing, you are sore and tired'.” This is one selfless kid. 'He just said: 'Zip it and get on my back'. Then he booted it.”

There's a deeply personal driving force for Mikey. 'For the first 12 months of my life I was on a monitor because my heart would stop randomly.” He lost his older brother to the same condition.

A couple of hundred metres up Mauao last Sunday afternoon 35kg of teenage determination was driving Mikey on. 'You can do it Mikey, you are nearly there.”

Thirty-five kilometres – that apparently 'sucks” for an appearance-conscious teenager.

'Everyone thinks I am lucky because I am nearly 17 and I could shop at Pumpkin Patch,” says this slip of a kid. 'You see a neat T-shirt or pants that teenagers like and they fit here but too big there, too baggy round the waist. It's frustrating.”

But back on the mountain, Nakita just couldn't stop crying. 'It was probably one of my most emotional times ever. I was crying so much because of what Mikey had done.” Even though she was on top of her own wee world, this was all about her ‘Mikey'. There were a lot of tears left on Mauao that day.

'I was determined not to fall off the edge because I was knackered,” says Michael. After all it's enough for some people to get up Mauao just once.

'And I maybe a stubborn bugger but the heart kids are brave kids and I just wanted to help.”

Now she's done her mountain climbing, Nakita is planning a career.

'Flippo-bottom-iss. I can't say it properly.” Phlebotomists draw blood from a patient for testing, transfusions or research. She wants to give back at a hospital probably because she has spent a lot of her 16 years in one. 'And I just love medical shows on TV. I suppose because I have been through so many medical procedures.

'But there's one show with blood and bones and everything. I love it.”

And down the track there's one more massive operation to go. The heart transplant. 'Then it's sad, because a family has to lose a loved one for me to survive.”

There's that selflessness again. And she and her ‘Mikey' have raised $3500 for the heart kids. Her face, her tears, his determination.