BATTLING CHREYL COLE worried Starbucks staff because she looked so "pale and thin" when she popped in for a coffee. The workers said she still appeared to be suffering the effects of her recent bout of malaria. One said: "She seemed a bit vague and not fully with it." The Sun yesterday pictured a smiling Cheryl, 27, making her first public appearance since leaving hospital. We told how she called at a service station on the A3 near her home in Guildford, Surrey, for a venti coffee frappuccino with no cream. Excited staff were later telling customers: "We`re all starstruck here. Cheryl Cole came in and now we`re on the front page of The Sun!" But one said: "She looked pale and thin. "I didn`t recognise her until she spoke in her Geordie accent. "She took some food but said it was for her minder - although she looked like she could do with a bit of feeding up. "Still, it was lovely to see her. Customers were really excited." The X Factor star was rushed to hospital after collapsing on July 3. Tests revealed she was suffering from potentially-fatal malaria after being bitten by a mosquito during a holiday in Tanzania with dancer pal DEREK HOUGH.