A COURAGEOUS Southampton teenager's dreams came true when he was given two of the hottest tickets in town to see Southampton play in this Saturday's FA Cup final against Arsenal.

Major Saints' fan Ross McGuinness, 13, is currently a patient at Southampton General Hospital after being diagnosed with a rare medical condition and is recovering from a bone marrow transplant last year.

But his spirits have been given a major boost after a generous benefactor gave him and his mum the chance to travel to Cardiff to see his heroes in action.

"I am just so excited at the moment, it is the best thing that could ever happen. It's cheered me up a lot because I was feeling quite down and bored.

"Everyone says Saints are the underdogs but Arsenal are going to have to watch out because we are going to do it," said Ross, a pupil at Cantell Secondary School.

Ross was only able to undergo the lifesaving operation after his nine-year-old sister proved a perfect bone marrow match - even though there was only a 30 per cent chance of this happening.

Ross, of Burgess Road, Swaythling, first went to hospital in early 2002 to find out why he kept suffering nosebleeds.

After a series of tests it was discovered that Ross had myelodysplasia, a condition suffered by one in every 500,000 people, which causes the bone marrow to stop generating red and white blood cells.

Ross's mum Karen is looking forward to accompanying her son to the game and the pair will enjoy being driven to and from the match by BMW dealer, Scotthall.

"It has meant a lot to Ross which makes this even more special. It's absolutely brilliant and although I am not a massive football fan, I do follow it," said Karen.

Michael Cooke from Southampton-based financial services network company, Premier Protection, paid £2,500 for the tickets after bidding for them in a charity auction at the annual Leukaemia Busters ball.

He said: "I didn't know what lots were going to be at the auction and when I found out about the FA Cup tickets for a child with leukaemia I thought it was something a bit different.

"There was a lot of competition and I had never done it before but I thought it was about time I gave something back."

The tickets were given to the auction by BMW car dealership Scotthall Hampshire.