Beth Dobbin ME letter: 360 sports names urge PM to fund research

Beth Dobbin, the Doncaster-born sprinter who ran for Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics, has gathered the backing of about 360 people from sport for her call on the UK government to fund more research into myalgic encephalomyelitis, the long-term illness known as ME or chronic fatigue syndrome. A follow-up letter to Prime Minister Andy Burnham, published on Monday, 2 November 2026, carries the names of 114 Olympians and Paralympians, among them Dina Asher-Smith and Tom Daley, as well as football figures including David Moyes, Emma Hayes and Millie Bright. Dobbin first wrote to Downing Street on Wednesday, 21 October 2026, and says that letter has had no reply. Her name was among the UK's trending searches on Wednesday, 4 November.

Dobbin describes ME as a "life-decimating" condition, and her own case shows what severe illness can mean: most of the day spent in bed. Her letter makes three points that patients' groups have made for years: there is no approved treatment, the National Health Service has no specific provision for people with severe ME, and research money is small compared with other conditions that affect a similar number of people.

What makes this appeal different is who is making it. Dobbin was, until her illness, an elite athlete whose working life depended on her body. The people who have signed in support are household names in British sport, and they have framed the request in sporting language, asking the Prime Minister to "level the playing field" for ME research. The letter's stated aim is to give hope to the many people affected "that something is being done about this life-destroying, much-ignored illness and its spiralling impact". It asks Burnham to meet Dobbin and to commit more money to research.

For readers of Life Balance, the story is also about how a long illness reshapes a life. Dobbin has described going from running at an Olympic Games to spending most of the day in bed. Her account, given first in an interview with BBC Sport, shows how an illness that is often invisible to others can end a career, cut a person off from work and friends, and leave carers and families to fill the gap where services are missing.

Peepals calculation: on the figures in the letter, Parkinson's research receives about 12 times as much as ME (£79.1 million ÷ £6.6 million ≈ 12.0) and dementia research about 75 times as much (£496.4 million ÷ £6.6 million ≈ 75.2). Spread across the 400,000 people with a diagnosis, the ME figure works out at about £16.50 a person (£6.6 million ÷ 400,000); spread across the charities' estimate of 1.35 million people, it is under £5 a person (£6.6 million ÷ 1.35 million ≈ £4.89). Our calculation from the reported figures.

Short-term: The immediate question is whether Downing Street replies and whether the Prime Minister agrees to meet Dobbin. The second letter has put the request in front of a far wider audience than the first, and ME charities have published it on their own sites.

Long-term: If the government responds with new money, it would go to research into the causes of ME and possible treatments, which patients' groups say is the only route to approved care. The letter itself makes no claim about any treatment, and none exists that is approved for the illness.

Who is affected: People living with ME in the UK, by the letter's count more than 400,000 with a diagnosis, and their families and carers; researchers in the field; and the NHS services that would have to provide care if a treatment were found.

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