A LITTLE girl fighting a brain tumour got to cuddle up to her Boyzone hero.

A LITTLE girl fighting a brain tumour got to cuddle up to her Boyzone hero.

Melissa Orr, 10, met Stephen Gately and the other members of the band when they played at Glasgow's SECC at the weekend.

Melissa, from Beith in North Ayrshire, was diagnosed with cancer last September.

But charity man Les Hoey, from Wishaw, arranged for her and other sick children from Yorkhill Hospital to sneak backstage to meet the Irish band.

Melissa said: "It was fantastic. Stephen's my favourite."

Mum Kathleen, 44, said: "She was over the moon. I think she likes Stephen and he gave her a cuddle."

Single mum Kathleen realised something was wrong when Melissa, who had always been an action-girl going swimming and horse riding, started limping last summer.

Doctors sent her to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley and she was diagnosed with a brain tumour in September.

Her devastated mum told Melissa "there was a lump in her head".

Melissa, who has a brother Fraser, 6, has a genetic condition called neurofibromatosis which is thought to have caused her tumour.

It causes lesions to appear throughout the body and increases chance of certain cancers and learning difficulties.

An emergency operation at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital saw surgeons remove as much of the growth as they could. Two further bouts of surgery saw them battle to remove more.

And in an effort to get Melissa out of hospital as quickly as possible after her last operation in January Kathleen bought Melissa a puppy - which she named George after her consultant Mr St George.

Kathleen said: "That's why we got the dog - we wanted her to come out fighting. She had the operation on the Wednesday and she was up on the Friday wanting to see George. She's amazing."

Melissa went on to have two months of chemotherapy which made her very ill. But radiotherapy has improved her health and meant she was well enough to go and see Boyzone when they played two sell-out nights in Glasgow last weekend.

Her family will return to hospital in a few weeks to get an update on her condition.

Kathleen said: "We've got to go back to Yorkhill on July 8 to see if the radiotherapy has worked. I want to know - but I don't want to know."

But Melissa has another treat coming up.

The youngster and her mum are going with other poorly children to meet X Factor judges Simon Cowell, Dannii Minogue, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole when they return to Glasgow for the show's auditions next month.