The Olympic sprinter now bedbound for 22 hours a day

Beth Dobbin is determined to raise awareness of the illness that has taken over her life, even though speaking about it could worsen her condition. Five years ago she represented Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics. Today, at age 32, she spends more than 22 hours each day in bed.

“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,” she says. “But I felt like it was really important to do that to get the message out.”

She now only gets out of bed to eat and use the bathroom.

Dobbin has been diagnosed with ME, or myalgic encephalomyelitis – a chronic, fluctuating disease that causes sleep problems, difficulties with thinking and memory, pain and severe, persistent fatigue that does not improve with rest, among other symptoms. Even a conversation or something as simple as a light that is too bright or a sound that is too loud can trigger a “crash” that may last 24 hours, 48 hours or, in the worst cases, months on end.

This year she has left the house on just five occasions.

“It’s life‑decimating like I can’t even put into words,” she says. “I feel like I’ve lost everything.” “I still have my family, but I’ve lost my independence, my health, the ability to work and the ability to exercise.”

For Dobbin the illness began with back‑to‑back Covid and glandular fever infections in the winter of 2021‑22. She did not feel unwell at the time; she only learned she had contracted both viruses through retrospective tests.

She had been sleeping a bit more and her running times were slightly slower, but nothing that raised alarm. As time went on she noticed soreness in the glands of her neck and armpits and a general sense of not feeling herself.

British Athletics doctors ran tests that found no answers, so she continued training, assuming it was lingering glandular fever that would eventually pass.

She qualified for that year’s World Championships, Commonwealth Games and European Championships, a season that was unusually condensed because of the pandemic backlog.

Her health steadily deteriorated. At the Worlds she struggled with a painful throat and woke at unusual times during the night. At the Commonwealths she felt dizzy while running and her body