Olympian Beth Dobbin bedbound 22 hours a day with ME, an illness that hits women most

Beth Dobbin, the British sprinter who ran for Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics, has said she now spends more than 22 hours a day in bed because of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome. In an interview with BBC Sport published on October 16, 2026, at her family home in Doncaster, the 32-year-old said she leaves her bed mainly to eat and use the bathroom and has left the house only five times this year. She said she chose to speak publicly to raise awareness of the illness, even though the effort of the interview could worsen her symptoms for months.

Dobbin's story is striking because it shows how quickly the illness can take hold of someone at the peak of physical fitness. A few years ago she was one of Britain's fastest women. During the 2022 season her health deteriorated across the World Championships, Commonwealth Games and European Championships, where she false-started after losing feeling in her legs. Today she describes losing her independence, her ability to work and her ability to exercise. She has also said that the illness is far more than tiredness, and that ordinary tasks, such as a blood test, have left her bedbound for months afterwards.

ME is often misunderstood as simple exhaustion that rest can fix. It is not. People with the condition can have pain, problems with memory and concentration, and an energy limit that rest does not restore. The key symptom, known as post-exertional malaise, means that doing too much on one day can cause a crash that lasts days, weeks or longer. That is why Dobbin warned that a single 30-minute interview could set her back well into next year.

The illness falls hardest on women. In the Edinburgh study of NHS hospital records, 79,445 of those diagnosed were women and 20,590 were men, a ratio of nearly four to one. The researchers estimated lifetime prevalence at about 0.92 per cent for women and 0.25 per cent for men in England, and the total of about 404,000 people was 62 per cent higher than the figure used in earlier national guidance. Many women with ME are in their working and caring years, so the illness can affect careers, finances and family life at once. Dobbin has also said that she has had no specialist NHS service for ME to turn to and that she has had to explain the condition to doctors herself, a common complaint among patients.

Short-term: A well-known athlete speaking openly is likely to draw attention to ME, to the long recovery many people face after viral infections, and to gaps in specialist care.

Long-term: Wider awareness can push health services to recognise ME earlier and to plan care around energy limits rather than pushing patients to exercise, which can make the condition worse. Better diagnosis data, especially for women, would also help research into causes and treatment.

Who is affected: People living with ME and their families and carers, women in particular, athletes and others recovering from repeated infections, doctors and health services, and employers who need to understand long-term fluctuating illness.

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