By Mark Staniforth, PA Sport, Salt Lake City

Rhona Martin feared she would have to pull out of the Winter Games due to illness only 10 days before she unleashed the stone which turned herself and her British curling team-mates into Olympic champions.

Skip Martin was taken ill with what was described as "a severe stomach problem" during the British team's holding camp in Calgary.

She was immediately taken to Salt Lake City where she was treated by British Olympic Association medical staff and spent some time in hospital.

British curling performance director Mike Hay said he had had to seriously consider Martin's participation.

Once the tournament had started, no replacements could have been flown in from Britain.

Martin said on Friday that she had not felt 100 per cent throughout the marathon tournament, and had been further hampered by getting only two hours of on-ice training before the Games started.

Coach Russell Keiller said: "Rhona very nearly missed the Olympic Games. She was taken ill with severe stomach problems.

"She was immediately taken down to the Olympic Village and treated by BOA medical staff. If it wasn't for their help and assistance, this might not have been possible."

Martin admitted: "It happened probably 10 days before the Games. It was hard for the girls because we were in Calgary to practice as a team and I had to leave them there.

"It was hard to deal with. I was worried I would not be fit to play, and it has not completely cleared up yet."

Hay said the decision on whether to make a medical substitution was not taken lightly.

He had drawn up a list of possible replacements, with Debbie Knox ready to step in as skip and alternate Maggie Morton replacing her in the line-up.

He said: "We weren't sure we'd made the right decision at the time. But we took medical advice from the BOA doctor who assured us that Rhona would be able to play a full part or at least a part in the Games, and that was good enough for us.

"Clearly it would have been a real problem if we had had to bring somebody out who had never played with the team before."

Martin, Knox, Janice Rankin, Fiona MacDonald and Morton had gelled as a team and would have been upset by any change.

MacDonald said: "We've been living in the same rooms for six months and living and training together has brought us really, really close."

But 10 days and 13 matches later, Martin was there to produce the shot which wrapped up a 4-3 win over Switzerland and guaranteed that tight unit instant fame.

Martin's nine and six-year-old children Jennifer and Andrew and her husband Keith, at home in the small Ayrshire village of Dunlop, were among the staggering six million people who tuned into the BBC to witness Britain clinch their first Winter gold for 18 years.

The team were whisked off to receive their medals at the Olympic Plaza, where they shared the stage with Alanis Morissette.

They toasted their victory by snapping a self-imposed eight-month alcohol ban with a glass of champagne.

Morton admitted she slept with her gold medal on her pillow, while Martin, a 35-year-old housewife, said: "I hung it up with my coat so I didn't forget it in the morning."

Prince Charles was among those who faxed the team a message of congratulations.

Still looking stunned at a press conference on Friday morning, the girls admitted being Olympic champions had not sunk in.

Martin will carry the flag at the closing ceremony then go back to Scotland with the team on Tuesday.

Seven days later they will play in the Scottish Championships at Braehead, part of the qualification procedure for the next World Championships.

Those that have day jobs will not go back to them for another fortnight. Knox was given paid leave by her employers Standard Life. Rankin, MacDonald and Morton were also given all the time off they needed, and supported by the sportscotland Lottery Fund.

Knox said: "I don't think we actually know what we've done yet. We've won an Olympic Games, we've won a gold medal. But we just don't realise what it's been like back home."

Already there are big plans to capitalise on the effect Martin's final stone had on a nation on the edge of its seats.

The £15,000 grant, from a combination of the BOA and lottery funding, and which also encompassed the men's team, will be increased.

They were already planning to build a curling rink at Cambridge University. Hay said: "We lose an awful lot of players because they move down south because of their jobs.

"If we got the facilities in London the game would be guaranteed to grow.

"It has been exposed to everybody rather than just Scotland. I believe there are already plans to build up to seven rinks in England."

The shot which brought curling home 200 years after the Scots had introduced it to north America was, Martin still insists, "a normal draw".

She laughed at questions about agents and celebrity status. "I didn't think too much about what I was playing it for," Martin said, reliving the moment she let go of the stone which would knock Swiss skip Luzia Ebnoether's out of the centre of the house and spark unbridled celebration within the British camp.

"I was quite happy with the way it was going. I left it in the sweepers' capable hands and they got it there. It was just another shot to win a game."