I've tried two, same thing happens with both, "John GBA - GBA Emulator" from "John Emulators", and "Emulator for GBA" by "Hai Phong Game Studio"
If it is the Emulator, can you recommend one that you know doesn't have any form of Back up system that would allow it to work?
Cheers
Edit: just got it to work, the .sgm file for it holds you location in the game above your save file, so it was always taking priority over what the .sav said, i deleted the .sgm (after backing it up) and then restarted the emulator and it built a new .sgm from the modified save. worked perfectly
Cheers for your quick response i wouldn't have thought to delete the .sgm if you hadn't said about the back up.