Former Team GB sprinter Beth Dobbin has revealed that Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) has left her bedbound for more than 22 hours a day, five years after she competed at the Tokyo Olympics.
Dobbin, from Doncaster, ran for Great Britain at the Tokyo Games in 2021. After a successful athletics career, she announced her retirement in April because of a severe health issue. Last month, she publicly disclosed her diagnosis of ME, a debilitating post-viral condition.
Appearance on Good Morning Britain
Dobbin appeared live on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, November 4, speaking to hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls. Because of her health, she could not travel to the studio and joined via a live link.
"Yeah, it's a big difference to what I was used to, really," Dobbin said. "There's so many symptoms I can't even list and doing things exacerbates those symptoms, so I have to be so careful."
She traced the start of her illness to 2022: "I got COVID, and a couple of months later I got glandular fever. And it was then, really, that I started to notice that things were wrong. So, maybe a couple of months into that, I started feeling a lot more tired, but it was very, very minor."
Rapid decline after Commonwealth Championships
Dobbin continued competing internationally, appearing at the World, European and Commonwealth Championships. It was only after the Commonwealths that she noticed a rapid decline in her symptoms. "My life's been pretty much destroyed ever since," she said.
Balls reflected on his wife Yvette Cooper's experience with ME decades earlier. "She spent a whole year bedbound in her early twenties with ME. It just came, and she ended up recovering from it. Back then, this was 30 years ago, people used to say, 'Is it all in the mind? Is it real?' These days, people think it's a post-viral illness, don't they, that something's happened with your immune system."
Dobbin replied: "I wish it was all in the mind, because I think I would be better from it by now. It takes sometimes years to get a diagnosis... This is a very physical illness. Like I said, I wish it was in the mind."
Open letter to the Prime Minister
Dobbin has written an open letter to Prime Minister Andy Burnham, calling for a drastic increase in government funding for ME research and NHS care. She is still waiting for a response.
"We've not heard anything from Downing Street, unfortunately. And I do feel bad for doing all this, because I know Andy is obviously likeable, he's down to earth, so I think everyone's wanting a piece of him almost," she said.
"The thing with my issue is, like I said, it impacts so many, and it's been neglected like nothing else... You go to the GP and you're sent on your way. There are specialist clinics but they don't have any doctor [for] a health issue that's this debilitating, by the way. It's not like you've got a sniffle, it's life decimating. I'm in bed 22 hours a day. I've left the hours five times this year, so there should be more out there."
At the end of the interview, Balls offered his support: "My prediction - in fact, my conviction - is that Downing Street will be in touch with you, and they'll want to listen to you. They want to celebrate Olympians when they are winning medals, but also when they are making very, very important cases for action. So, I'm sure they'll be in touch."
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays on ITV1 and ITVX at 6am. More information on the issues raised in this story is available via The ME Association.
