Beth Dobbin ran for Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Five years later, the 32-year-old spends more than 22 hours a day in bed, diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), a chronic, fluctuating illness with no known cure.
Dobbin is speaking out to raise awareness, despite knowing that even small exertions can trigger a "crash" lasting days or, in the worst cases, months. This year she has left the house on just five occasions. Her symptoms include severe, persistent fatigue that rest does not relieve, sleep problems, memory and thinking difficulties, and pain. Even a bright light or a loud sound can set off a crash. "It's life-decimating like I can't even put into words," she says. "I feel like I've lost everything."
Her illness began with back-to-back Covid and glandular fever infections in the winter of 2021-22. She had not felt unwell with either and only discovered them through retrospective tests. Her health then deteriorated through the 2022 season, which included the World Championships, Commonwealth Games and European Championships. At the Europeans she false-started after losing all feeling in her legs in the blocks. Doctors ran tests that gave no answers, and she later saw four or five specialists before being told she had ME.
ME has no specific treatment, and patients often rely on off-label medication to manage more than 200 possible symptoms. The condition is also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), a label Dobbin strongly rejects. She says she has "known fatigue my whole life" as a former athlete, but believes the term fails to capture the severity of her illness. "I wish it was just fatigue, that would be a walk in the park," she says.
Source: BBC Sport · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing