# Sportspeople back Dobbin’s PM plea on ME funding

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/sportspeople-back-dobbins-pm-plea-on-me-funding/
- Published: 2026-11-02T06:30:24+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-02T07:37:53+00:00
- Original publisher: BBC Sport (publisher lean: Centre)
- Original article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/articles/c63r53wvy4q5o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss
- Topics: Government, Politics, Sport

## Key points

- More than 350 sportspeople back Beth Dobbin’s call for greater ME research funding.
- ME research received £6.6m in government funding from 2019 to 2024.
- Dobbin says she spends over 22 hours a day in bed.

## Summary

More than 350 sports figures, including Olympians Dina Asher-Smith and Tom Daley, have urged Prime Minister Andy Burnham to meet former sprinter Beth Dobbin and increase funding for ME research. Dobbin, 32, says the illness leaves her in bed for more than 22 hours a day; her campaign highlights the lack of approved treatments and the need for better research.

The letter says government research funders committed £6.6m to ME research between 2019 and 2024, compared with £79.1m for Parkinson’s and £496.4m for dementia. More than 400,000 people in the UK are thought to have ME, though estimates may exceed one million. Dobbin wrote to Burnham on 21 October and says she has not received a response; she describes how everyday activity can trigger severe and prolonged deterioration.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.