Team GB Olympian faces tough chronic illness, spending 22 hours a day in bed
Former Team GB sprinter Beth Dobbin has shared that she is living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), a serious long-term illness that currently has her bedridden for about 22 hours a day.
Beth, 32, retired from athletics in April 2026 and opened up about this “life-changing health issue.” She ran in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, reaching the 200m semi-finals, and helped Scotland win bronze in the 4x200m relay at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Born in Doncaster, Beth competed for Scotland thanks to her dad, former footballer Jim Dobbin. She stopped competing at the end of 2022 after facing health problems while running. She even false-started at the European Championships final—a first for her—saying at the time, “I know I’m not in shape, I don’t feel well… It’s been a rough year, really hard, and I just want it over.”
In a recent BBC Sport interview, Beth explained that during winter 2021/22, she had COVID-19 followed by glandular fever. British Athletics doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong at first, and she kept running in 2022, but noticed her times were a bit slower and she felt soreness around her neck and armpits. Symptoms worsened after the European Championships, making it hard for her to stand and sleep properly. She tried to train again but only managed three weeks.
After seeing many specialists, Beth was finally diagnosed with ME. She says even sitting up can be exhausting, so she prefers to stay propped up in bed—not because it makes her feel better, but because it eases her symptoms a little. “It’s life-breaking; I feel like I’ve lost so much,” she shares.
Beth describes her outlook as “very bleak” since there’s no real medicine for ME, but she’s hopeful because COVID brought more attention to post-viral illnesses. “I have a platform to speak out, and I feel it’s my duty to do so.”
ME is a long-term illness that can affect many parts of the body. Though exact numbers aren’t known, recent research found over 400,000 people in the UK have ME, with nearly a million more possibly affected after COVID. Symptoms include extreme tiredness, sleep and memory problems, and worsening symptoms after even small activities.
The NHS calls it chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), but Beth says it’s much more than just feeling tired—it’s as if her body is shutting down and she feels very close to death. There’s no specific treatment yet, and patients are advised to avoid intense unsupervised exercise since it could make symptoms worse. Instead, they need personal care plans to help manage their symptoms.