Five years ago, Beth Dobbin was sprinting the 200 meters for Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics. Today, the 32-year-old Scottish athlete spends roughly 22 hours of every day in bed, battling myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), a severe and incurable fatigue condition. She has chosen to speak publicly about her illness, fully aware that the conversation itself could cost her months of recovery.
A Debilitating Diagnosis
ME, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, is a long-term illness that makes even minor physical or mental exertion overwhelming, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For Dobbin, the condition is extreme. She has described feeling as though her body "is shutting down," comparing it to being "a few days from death." A simple conversation, she says, can trigger a crash lasting anywhere from a day to several months. Beyond the fatigue, she contends with a sore throat, digestive problems, allergies, muscle and joint pain, nausea and headaches - leaving her bedridden except for essential trips to eat or use the bathroom.
"It's life-decimating, like I can't even put into words," Dobbin told BBC Sport. "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."
From Starting Blocks to Bed Rest
Dobbin's decline traces back to 2021-22, when she contracted Covid-19 and a glandular infection in close succession during a condensed competitive season. What followed was persistent exhaustion, dizziness and restlessness. Matters came to a head when she lost all feeling in her legs while in the starting blocks of a race, causing a false start. The road to diagnosis involved consultations with four or five specialists, as her symptoms spanned multiple body systems before ME was identified - a diagnosis she admits doctors were initially reluctant to confirm, given the lack of treatment options.
Using Her Platform to Push for Awareness
Dobbin believes the rise of long Covid, which shares overlapping symptoms with ME, has brought the condition into sharper public focus. ME is estimated to affect around 400,000 people in the United Kingdom and roughly 3.3 million in the United States, though those figures are widely considered conservative. For Dobbin, speaking out carries a cost, but also a purpose.
"It's not necessarily that I want to discuss it, but it's raising that awareness," she said. "Unfortunately, athletes are believed a lot more than the average person. A lot of people with this illness have told 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?"
She added: "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."
