In an X posting on 21st October 2026 Olympic, Commonwealth and European sprinter Beth Dobbin began by saying that she was “blown away by the response to my interview” to BBC sports in which the impact on her life of ME/CFS was laid bare:
“Five years ago, she ran for Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics. Now, at 32, she spends more than 22 hours a day in bed.”
Beth is the Scottish 200m record holder and finished first in the European Team Championships in 2021. Her personal best of 22.50 seconds ranks her as the ninth fastest Brit of all time over the distance.
This year, due to ME/CFS, Beth has left the house on just five occasions. “It’s life-decimating like I can’t even put into words,” she said. “I feel like I’ve lost everything. “I have still got my family, but I’ve lost my independence, my health, the ability to work, the ability to exercise.”
Her story has been picked up by diverse news outlets across the world such as – LBC, The New York Post, and the Netherlands’ De Telegraaf
In her X posting, Beth called upon Prime Minister Andy Burnham and the Government to fund ME/CFS research properly and she shared graphics showing the drastic underfunding of ME/CFS research compared to other diseases.
She highlighted that “it is currently costing the UK Government far more than it would cost to fund research. ME is most often a post-viral illness. Therefore, since the start of the Covid pandemic, we’ve seen cases increase drastically and they will continue to increase. We need funding into research urgently. With estimates of people with ME being around 1.35 million, this is a lot of lives destroyed.”
The points regarding lack of research funding have been raised consistently by ME Research UK – including in the charity’s response to the consultation over the Interim Delivery Plan, and in its reaction to the publication of the Delivery Plan itself which was stated to be “long on justification and support but short on both money and concrete actions”.
Over decades, successive governments have chosen to ignore calls for appropriate funding for the disease in terms of both prevalence and severity and nor do the initiatives reflect the bold ambition seen in other countries – notable the Netherlands and Germany.
The government has consistently rejected calls for ring-fenced funding for ME/CFS.
Indeed, when asked only this month about “what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of the funding model for post-infectious disease research in Germany, specifically its €500 million National Decade Against Post-Infectious Diseases initiative, and whether she plans to introduce dedicated, ring-fenced funding for biomedical research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) and Long Covid”, the responsible Minster responded to say that:
“No specific assessment or cost-benefit analysis of the kind described has been carried out” and that “on ring-fenced funding, I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided on 5 November 2025 in response to Question 86002(opens in a new tab), and on regional tertiary specialist centres, I refer him to the answers provided on 29 April and 6 July in response to Questions 124134 and 13299.”
With the lack of appropriate central financial support for research has been borne by charities – principally ME Research UK whose projects, Fellowships and PhD-Level research span the globe. Charities, in turn, rely largely on the support of individuals, many of whom are affected directly or indirectly by ME/CFS. In fact, Beth’s younger sister, Faye, recently completed the Altra Yorkshire Marathon in aid of ME Research UK.
Donations from our valued supporters are vital if we are to continue our work to inform, influence and invest in ME/CFS research globally.
