The 15-year-old from Walkerburn has learned that she is among an elite group of around 100 Borderers who will carry the Queen’s Baton through the region in June.

And earlier in the month she gained official recognition for her skills at judo when she was made Junior Sports Personality of the Year at the prestigious Tweeddale Sports Council awards.

Proud mother Trish said: “I’m so delighted for Rae and she thoroughly deserves this along with the sports award. She’s doing fabulously well and this is reward for all the work she’s put in.

“She not only works hard at her sport but she has a brother Reece who is 13 and has special needs and she helps me so much with him.

“I knew Rae was nominated for this and it was great when the news came through that she’d been chosen.

“Each person carries the baton for 200 metres but we don’t know where Rae will be going yet - it could be anywhere. Four weeks before the event they are sent a uniform and information pack.” The baton relay is part of the countdown to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and will arrive in the Borders on June 14.

The community batonbearers were selected by an independent panel. Among the list of considerations were people’s achievements against the odds, their contributions to community and youth sport and the difference they made through volunteering and community sport.

The Borders leg of the Queen’s Baton starts in Duns and passes through several other communities before finishing by going through Jedburgh and Hawick.

Before her next taste of fame, Rae, a member of Peebles Judo Club, will continue to graft at her sport as she attempts to achieve her ambition to one day be a competitor in the Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games.

“Rae’s currently in the development squad and her next target is to get in the performance squad,” said her mum. “She’s been training at Kendal and is soon off to Holland, so things are going really for well.”