Lee McConnell survived a last-minute scare when she thought she might have shingles and feared she might miss the Olympic Games until medical tests cleared her to travel to Macau less than 24 hours before she was due to fly.

Two days before Last Saturday's scheduled departure she woke with a severe blistered rash on her face. She thought it was shingles which would have prevented her from joining the team, for risk of putting up to 150 competitors at risk of chickenpox.

"Last Thursday I woke up with an itchy rash on my face and didn't know what it was," she said yesterday at Team GB's acclimatisation camp. "I went into see John MacLean, the doctor at Hampden Sports Medical Centre.

"He said it could have been a couple of things, but we thought I might have shingles. So he made a phone call and drove me immediately to see a consultant.

"I was a wee bit panicked. John was really good, because I was asking: What does this mean', and he was trying subtley to change the subject and get my mind off it.

"I saw John at 11, and he phoned Ross Hall. The dermatologist had a cancellation at 11.30, and saw me immediately as a favour to John. He took a swab and phoned another two consultants to confirm the best way to treat it, and how to get the test done quickly.

"John drove me back to get my car and then took the swab to the hospital lab for testing. It was a bit of a panic, and I had to wait until the following afternoon, the Friday. I was due to fly here the next day.

"It came back clear for shingles.

I don't know what it was. It was just a bit of a virus, and it's cleared up quite quickly. They dealt with it really well, but it was a stressful 24 hours.

"I don't think the British team would have let me travel. Obviously people that hadn't had chickenpox could have ended up catching it, and I don't think I would have been a very popular person on the team. I wouldn't have wanted to travel if I was at risk of giving anyone any sort of illness.

"Everything was a bit up in the air.

It turned out all right, and it was a bit of a drama for nothing, but it was stress I could have done without.

"They were really thorough. Normally they tell you to come back in a couple of days, because by then they'd know what the rash was, but they couldn't leave it and had to get me on medication in case. They gave me medication for shingles, and said it would clear up the rash anyway, which it almost has.

It was just a bit of a virus . . . but I wouldn’t have wanted to travel if I was at risk of giving anyone any sort of illness

"It was nasty, itchy, all little blisters, not the most attractive thing. It was much better on Saturday before I travelled, which was good because I think people on the plane wouldn't have wanted to sit beside me.

"I'd been run down for a couple of weeks, tired, and my glands were a wee bit up, but it never came to a cold."

Given what she seems to have been through, it was perhaps not unexpected. She had cancelled a press conference at very short notice recently. A scottishathletics statement cited a family bereavement, and she was doubtful for the Crystal Palace Grand Prix on the Friday.

In the event she ran third in a quality field behind world gold and silver medallists Christine Ohuruogu and Nicola Sanders. "It was little short of miraculous," said coach Roger Harkins.

McConnell declined to go into details, but circumstances were clearly profoundly upsetting. "I don't feel able to discuss it," she said, but seemed emotionally drained as she acknowledged she had eaten and slept irregularly.

"I'm just looking at each day at a time at the moment. I've not been feeling that good - a bit run down.

I am just happy to be here and waiting to get some training done. Roger arrives tomorrow.

"Things are a bit unknown for me.

I know I am in good shape, but training needs to give me some confidence going into the Games."

Yet as we spoke, in the lobby of the Westin resort in the coastal suburb of Coloane, she relaxed and became more positive.

"I've been in Beijing before, for the World Student Games, and we won a medal in the 4 x 400. It would be good to repeat that."

Beijing removed a nagging fear that she might be the victim of a practical joke. She has a tattoo of her name, in Chinese on her navel. "When I said I wanted one, my dad got the translation from a waiter in a Chinese restaurant."

For years I teased her that it probably said sweet and sour chicken, or king prawn fried rice.

"I began to worry about that," she said, "until the flight home from the student Games. We were given a certificate with our names in Chinese.

I looked, and was really relieved to see it was the same as my tattoo."

There was another global bronze from the World Championships in Osaka last year, when the Glasgow woman ran 49.79 on the third leg, faster than all but Sanders.

"I can't deny we have a strong team, but it's hard to get all four girls running to their best at the same time on the same day, though we managed it last year," she said.

As the most experienced relay runner in the squad, she has the analysis spot on. "There are four strong teams and we are fourth among them. If we get it, it's going to be a hard medal. Last year we ran a British record and still only managed to finish third. It's going to be just as hard if not harder."

She is aware Russia, Jamaica, and the US, all have more women, faster than Britain on paper, to call on.

McConnell knows that in the individual 400, it will take more than the Scottish record (50.71) to reach the final. "I'm not sure than 50.50 will be good enough," she says, "But I am sure I'm ready to run a personal best. We'll take it from there."

Among the family entourage supporting her in China will be Lee's father who cashed in spectacularly when she won Commonwealth and European silver and bronze in 2002.

"He placed a bet that I would win medals in two major championships within three years," said Lee. "When they came up within just a few weeks, he collected. He did not tell me he put the bet on, or what the odds were. And he has never told any of us how much he won. But he must have collected big time. He enjoys a punt. We used to keep greyhounds, but they were rubbish. I always felt sorry for them, so skinny. So I fed them Jammy Dodgers. That's probably why they weren't very good.

"I remember once, we took them down the coast, Ayr or Largs, somewhere like that. He wanted to get them in the sea. They hated it. There we were trying to push them into the water. I think we got wetter than they did.

"I used to walk them with him, and often he would take me to Shawfield. He wouldn't want to miss that.

"He'd take me into the bookies, and place 10p bets for me. When we passed the bookies one day, I told mum that was where dad took me, she had a fit."