SAM Busby could barely believe her eyes when she opened the Andover Advertiser last week and saw a proposal of marriage from her boyfriend.

She was on her way back to Andover from Basingstoke when Ady Leach sent her a text message asking whether she had seen the paper.

As soon as she got to Andover she bought one and saw her name writ large. Ady's message was: "We've been together for a while now and I love you so much, so will you do me the honour of being my wife. Love you always Ady."

This week Sam said: "I was really shocked. I was really, really stunned that he had gone to all that trouble.

"I started crying and getting all emotional on the platform.

"When he arrived at the station to pick me up in the car he just looked at me and I just said yes, I would be honoured to be your wife."

It was the culmination of a long road on the way to love. Sam, aged 24, and 27-year-old Ady, both went to Winton School but did not know each other then because of their age difference.

But their friendship began about seven years ago when Ady was dating Sam's best friend and Sam was dating someone else.

They consoled each other when these, and other, relationships broke down but there's was a platonic relationship.

Sam, who works at Twinings as a machine operator, said they were best friends - then one day it all clicked.

"Our relationship started to deepen," said Sam. "It was fate, and I now believe we were meant to be together."

Ady, a graphic designer, had actually formally proposed on one knee the week before - but the advert in the Advertiser just helped to cement the engagement.

Sam added: "It confirmed that he really meant it, that it was finally going to happen."

More than 100 friends and family attended an engagement party at The Swallow on Saturday night and they want to have a full-blown white wedding at St Mary's Church in 2005, with a honeymoon in the Seychelles.