A British Olympic sprinter has opened up about a chronic health condition that has left her spending 22 hours in bed every day.
Beth Dobbin, who represented Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), which is described by the Cleveland Clinic as a “chronic illness that causes extreme tiredness that doesn’t improve with rest.”
The 32-year-old, from Doncaster, a city around 145 miles north of London, now only gets out of bed to eat or use the bathroom and has only left her house five times in 2026 so far, the BBC Sport reported on Friday, Oct. 16.
“This kind of fatigue — it feels like your body’s shutting down. It feels like you are a few days away from death,” she told the outlet. “That is how it feels. I’ve gone from training five hours a day to being bed bound 22 and a half hours a day.”
Dobbin explained that she contracted COVID and glandular fever between 2021 and 2022, both of which she found out through tests as she didn’t realize she had been unwell.
She then noticed that her neck and armpits would get sore and explained her symptoms to doctors.
“As the season went on, it just kind of got progressively worse, and I would have one bad race, one good race, one bad race,” Dobbin told the outlet.
Doctors ran tests, but nothing was picked up, so she continued, assuming the glandular fever would pass.
But more signs presented, and Dobbin struggled with dizziness while running, along with feeling sore and losing feeling in her legs during a competition, causing her to false start.
After seeing multiple specialists, the athlete was diagnosed with ME.
Dobbin, who trained in athletics and sports for two decades, described her future as “very bleak” to BBC Sport.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“I’m about 22 and a half hours of the day in bed, and again, that’s because even things like sitting up for a prolonged period of time, that can take it out of me. So I prefer to be just propped up in bed,” she told the outlet.
Some symptoms of ME include severe fatigue, difficulty sleeping, headaches, joint pains, muscle aches and trouble with concentration and memory, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Dobbin’s sister, Faye, said she is “so desperate” to help her sibling, but can’t because there is no cure for ME. She is planning on running a marathon to fundraise for the charity ME Research U.K.
“You wake up every day and just feel sad. She should be building her life, living her best life,” Dobbin’s mother, Jean, told the BBC.