A LIBRARIAN has said she is "gobsmacked, but incredibly proud" to be among 4000 people chosen to carry the Queen's Baton on a relay through Scotland in the run up to the Commowealth Games in Glasgow.

Linda Anderson-Kerr from Oban, Argyll, admitted she is bursting with excitement at the chance to hold the emblem after being nominated for her work with mental health charity Befrienders Highland since 2007.

The 55-year-old said yesterday: "You hope you will be picked but you realise there's an awful lot of good works going on throughout Scotland so to be chosen out of all the people who were nominated is great. I'm in a bit of a dwam about it. It's lovely, but I don't quite believe it yet … It's such an honour. I'll be taking part in a wee bit of history."

Mrs Anderson-Kerr was ­nominated for the baton relay by a friend. She currently helps a schizophrenia sufferer who lives 200 miles away from her.

She said: "The idea is that we befriend people at a distance. She lives over 200 miles away but we write letters to each other every week. I also support a woman who has dementia. She lives 150 miles way but I phone her every week.

"I live in a rural area but I can help and support other people in rural areas who have mental health issues or dementia. "

Although many of those chosen as baton carriers find out officially today, Mrs Anderson-Kerr was given advance warning by the Glasgow 2014 organisers. "I've had to keep schtum," she says, "so I'm bursting with excitement."

Another who knew early is Elizabeth Ferris, 27. Like Mrs Anderson-Kerr she was sworn to secrecy but admits that she didn't quite keep to the rules. "I did tell my mum, but I think everyone can tell their mum!"

Ms Ferris was two years into a medical degree at the University of Dundee when she became ill with a connective tissue disease that affected her spinal cord and blinded her in one eye.

She added: "I had a couple of years off when I became ill and then came back to university as a wheelchair user so that was quite different. But medicine is totally doable in a chair - hospitals are made for beds so everywhere they can go, I can go."

She doesn't know who nominated her as a potential participant in the Queen's Baton Relay but she does know why - for her founding of the Dundee Dragons Wheelchair Rugby League Club.

Ms Ferris said: "I set the club up because there were no sporting opportunities for active wheelchair users in Tayside. There was no rugby, no basketball, no tennis. I was going to have go to Glasgow to play rugby or Edinburgh to play tennis but it's quite a commitment when you're studying for a medical degree. So I though there has to be more than me in the area who want to do this."

The club now has more than 20 members and Ms Ferris has represented Scotland at wheelchair rugby. She is delighted to be picked to take part in the relay but she also aims to represent "the wider disability sports fraternity."

"It's a huge honour to be able to show that life can give you a raw hand but that anything is possible," she adds. "Disability doesn't have to define you. You can just get out there and get on with it."

By the time it arrives in Glasgow, the Queen's Baton will have travelled across 70 Commonwealth countries. It left Buckingham Palace on October 9 2013 and will arrive in Scotland on June 14.

Young footballer Robert Miller, left, from Dunoon, who has battled a series of health problems to become an award-winning sportsman, is another who will carry the baton.

l The island of Nevis sent ­muscle-bound Vaughn Anslyn in just a kilt in the national colours to collect the baton from neighbouring St Kitts on Saturday.