Beth Dobbin, a sprinter who represented Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, is currently navigating a debilitating health crisis that has left her largely bedbound. Now 32, Dobbin spends more than 22 hours every day in bed, struggling with the severe, life-altering impacts of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). Athletes are believed a lot more than the average person, and unfortunately.
The sprinter’s condition involves extreme, persistent fatigue that does not improve with rest, alongside cognitive difficulties, memory issues, and physical pain. Dobbin describes the sensation as an all-encompassing systemic shutdown, stating, “It feels like you’re days away from death.” She notes that even minor stimuli, such as a conversation lasting 30 minutes, exposure to bright lights, or loud noises, can trigger a “crash” that leaves her incapacitated for 48 hours or, in more severe instances, months at a time. I’ve done little things like attend a blood test at the doctors and been in bed for months after. Chatting away for 30 minutes, that could have an impact on me in 2027,” she says, so doing this interview. Or even something so simple as a light too bright or a sound too loud, can cause a “crash” that lasts 24, 48 hours, or in the worst cases, months on end, a conversation. She noticed soreness in the glands of her neck and armpits and a general sense of not quite feeling herself, as time went on. After six weeks, I went back to training.
Dobbin’s health began to decline following consecutive infections of Covid-19 and glandular fever during the winter of 2021-2022. Despite these infections occurring without severe initial symptoms, her athletic performance began to wane. She pushed through a dense 2022 calendar—including the World Championships, Commonwealth Games, and European Championships—while battling increasing physical distress. During the European Championships, she suffered a false start caused by a total loss of sensation in her legs. Only discovering she had contracted both through retrospective tests, she had not been unwell with either.
Following that season, her symptoms accelerated as she struggled with persistent exhaustion and an inability to stand. Multiple specialists eventually confirmed an ME diagnosis, a condition for which there is currently no cure or standardized medical treatment. While the illness is sometimes categorized as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Dobbin explicitly rejects this terminology, arguing it diminishes the severity of a disease that involves hundreds of symptoms, ranging from nausea to profound brain fog. She struggled with a painful throat and was waking at unusual times in the night, at the Worlds. According to i think I saw four or five different specialists because the symptoms that I was having, they were across multiple [body] systems. All the specialists, ‘this is ME’ and we don’t want it to be that because there’s nothing out there for it. ME has no known cure or specific treatment, with patients often relying on off-label medication to manage a condition that can cause more than 200 symptoms, including nausea, headaches, poor cognitive function and brain fog. According to as a former athlete who balanced working eight-hour shifts with training before turning professional, she, She has “known fatigue my whole life” and believes the term fails to capture the severity of the illness. If I thought of fatigue in my top 20 symptoms it might just make the cut. Why would an athlete just suddenly stop after 20 years, i’ve never experienced one person that doesn’t believe me and that’s because.
This year, Dobbin has left her home in Doncaster only five times. She notes that even the simple act of sitting up for extended periods is a struggle, preferring to remain propped in bed to manage the intensity of her symptoms. Though she relies on medication to facilitate sleep, she frequently finds herself unable to rest even while confined to bed. When the Europeans had finished, I had this huge rest and the symptoms were just piling on.
The impact of the illness extends deeply into the lives of her family. Her father, Jim, a former professional footballer, expressed his frustration over the lack of medical support, noting that the family would travel anywhere if a cure or specialized treatment existed. Her mother, Jean, highlighted the emotional toll, describing the daily uncertainty regarding her daughter’s condition and the anxiety surrounding their future prospects, particularly regarding who will provide care if her parents are no longer able to do so.
Research and specialized care remain significant obstacles. The NHS currently lacks dedicated specialist services for ME, leaving patients like Dobbin to navigate private healthcare or educate general practitioners on the condition. She experienced a 22-month wait for a face-to-face appointment with a private specialist after her British Athletics funding concluded.
Despite the physical toll of speaking out, Dobbin feels a duty to raise awareness for the estimated 400,000 to one million people in the UK living with the illness. She hopes that increased public and medical attention might lead to greater research, noting that the medical community seems to be awakening to the reality of the condition in the wake of the pandemic. In support of her sister, Faye Dobbin is running the Yorkshire Marathon to raise funds for ME Research UK, describing the process as a way to cope with the helplessness of watching her sister’s health deteriorate. But nothing that raised alarm, she had been sleeping a bit more and her running times were slightly down. More than 400,000 people in the UK are thought to have ME, although the true figure could exceed one million, with severity ranging from people able to work or study to those requiring round-the-clock care and tube feeding.
For now, Dobbin faces a future that she describes as “very bleak.” Reflecting on her situation, she says, “It’s life-decimating like I can’t even put into words. I feel like I’ve lost everything,” citing the loss of her independence, career, and physical health. She emphasizes that speaking about her experience is a calculated risk, but one she deems vital for the thousands of others suffering from the illness who feel ignored or doubted by society. But I felt like it was really important to do that to get the message out. But it makes them less hellish, it doesn’t get rid of my symptoms.
