Scottish Olympian Beth Dobbin, 32, who ran for Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics, has been left bedbound for 22 hours a day after being diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis, commonly known as ME. The long-term, complex neurological condition affects multiple body systems, and Dobbin, daughter of former Celtic star Jim Dobbin, says it has robbed her of her independence.
'Life-decimating' impact
Speaking to the BBC, the sprinter said: "It's life-decimating, like I can't even put into words. I feel like I've lost everything. I have still got my family, but I've lost my independence, my health, the ability to work, the ability to exercise."
The illness can cause sleep problems, issues with thinking and memory, pain and severe fatigue. Dobbin can now only get out of bed to eat and use the bathroom, and has left the house just five times this year.
She said: "I've done little things like attend a blood test at the doctors and been in bed for months after. So doing this interview, chatting away for 30 minutes, that could have an impact on me in 2027. But I felt like it was really important to do that to get the message out."
Decline after infections
Dobbin first became unwell during the winter of 2021, after suffering back-to-back Covid and glandular fever infections. Her health progressively deteriorated. At the World Championships, she struggled with a painful throat and was waking at unusual times at night. At the Commonwealth Games, she felt dizzy while running and her body was more sore than normal. At the European Championships, she false-started after losing all feeling in her legs while in the blocks.
She said: "When the Europeans had finished, I had this huge rest and the symptoms were just piling on. Things were getting worse and worse. I was struggling to stand up, I was sleeping loads, in bed all the time. After six weeks, I went back to training. I managed three weeks."
"[Doctors] were just really shocked that I still wasn't doing well and I'd had these viruses months ago. 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 said 'this is ME' and we don't want it to be that because there's nothing out there for it."
No known cure
ME has no known cure. The condition is often known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) - a label Dobbin strongly rejects. She said: "I wish it was just fatigue, that would be a walk in the park. It's so much more than that. If I thought of fatigue in my top 20 symptoms it might just make the cut."
Instead, she says, it feels like her entire body "is shutting down; it feels like you are a few days from death." She added: "Even things like sitting up for a prolonged period of time can take it out of me so I prefer to be just propped up in bed, and that doesn't mean I feel fine. It doesn't get rid of my symptoms, but it makes them less hellish."
Her father Jim, who also played for Barnsley, Grimsby and Doncaster Rovers, said: "I'm just so desperate to help her but I can't because there is nothing. I'd take her anywhere, I'd take her to America if I had to, but there's nothing."
Since the Covid pandemic and the emergence of long Covid - which has overlapping symptoms with ME - there has been a surge in attention and an increase in research funding for the condition. Dobbin added: "There will be something, I hope, in the future. I said I wanted to speak about it. It's not necessarily that I want to discuss it [but] it's raising that awareness. And unfortunately, athletes are believed a lot more than the average person."
"A lot of people that have this illness that I've spoken to have said to me 'I don't get believed, people think I'm lazy'. I've never experienced one person that doesn't believe me and that's because, why would an athlete just suddenly stop after 20 years? I've got a slight platform. If this happened to most people they wouldn't be able to speak about it, so I do feel like I've got a bit of a duty to do that."
