Adam pwme
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
New blog:
Just post in the introduction the rest of the blog is in the article.
Content warning: Psychiatric detention, death and suicide.
Former Olympic sprinter Beth Dobbin has called on Prime Minister Andy Burnham to increase research funding and improve specialist NHS care for people with ME/CFS. Beth represented Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics but developed severe ME following Covid and glandular fever [1, 2].
Beth also highlighted that “ME has been neglected and psychologised for years”. This is particularly relevant because this isn’t the first time the treatment of ME/CFS patients has been brought to Burnham’s attention. In 2009, when he was Health Secretary, he received letters from Criona Wilson, whose daughter Sophia Mirza had died of severe ME/CFS [3, 4]. Sophia had been sectioned after refusing to attend a clinic that treated patients with Graded Exercise Therapy [5]. Her condition deteriorated sharply following her detention, and her family believe it contributed to her death [5, 6].
Criona raised concerns about Sophia’s treatment and the NICE guideline recommending Graded Exercise Therapy and CBT [3]. The Government defended the treatments, but twelve years later, NICE made a dramatic U-turn. They told doctors to stop offering Graded Exercise Therapy and downgraded CBT to a supportive role because the underlying research was too poor in quality and a large number of patients had reported harm [7, 8].
But changing the guidance hasn't stopped serious failures in care. Patients are still being offered Graded Exercise Therapy, and in the last few years, following the deaths of two people with severe ME, coroners have warned that more could die unless action is taken. A 2026 report also found that people with severe ME/CFS are still not being believed and are going without basic medical care, putting them at risk of deterioration or even death.
Just post in the introduction the rest of the blog is in the article.
Andy Burnham and ME/CFS scandal
Two letters, Seventeen years apartContent warning: Psychiatric detention, death and suicide.
Former Olympic sprinter Beth Dobbin has called on Prime Minister Andy Burnham to increase research funding and improve specialist NHS care for people with ME/CFS. Beth represented Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics but developed severe ME following Covid and glandular fever [1, 2].
Beth also highlighted that “ME has been neglected and psychologised for years”. This is particularly relevant because this isn’t the first time the treatment of ME/CFS patients has been brought to Burnham’s attention. In 2009, when he was Health Secretary, he received letters from Criona Wilson, whose daughter Sophia Mirza had died of severe ME/CFS [3, 4]. Sophia had been sectioned after refusing to attend a clinic that treated patients with Graded Exercise Therapy [5]. Her condition deteriorated sharply following her detention, and her family believe it contributed to her death [5, 6].
Criona raised concerns about Sophia’s treatment and the NICE guideline recommending Graded Exercise Therapy and CBT [3]. The Government defended the treatments, but twelve years later, NICE made a dramatic U-turn. They told doctors to stop offering Graded Exercise Therapy and downgraded CBT to a supportive role because the underlying research was too poor in quality and a large number of patients had reported harm [7, 8].
But changing the guidance hasn't stopped serious failures in care. Patients are still being offered Graded Exercise Therapy, and in the last few years, following the deaths of two people with severe ME, coroners have warned that more could die unless action is taken. A 2026 report also found that people with severe ME/CFS are still not being believed and are going without basic medical care, putting them at risk of deterioration or even death.
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