SHOWING TRUE GRIT Beth Dobbin
She had to learn to walk and talk again after an epileptic seizure but now Beth Dobbin is a record-breaker eager to make up for lost time
THE message is clear when Beth Dobbin, fulfilling one of her many roles in life, is touring schools as a motivational speaker: Never, ever give up. The backstory explains why its delivery is so forceful and compelling. This is no cheap mantra. Rather, it is her personal code for living, shaped by a childhood trauma and an unshakeable determination to view burning hurt and disappointment, of which there has been plenty, as an accelerant rather than an albatross.
Born in Doncaster to a Scottish father — the one-time Celtic and Motherwell midfielder Jim Dobbin — the 24-year-old has sprung to prominence over the past couple of weeks thanks to breaking Sandra Whittaker’s 34-year-old record for the 200metres in a British Women’s League match at Eton and bettering it in the more illustrious surroundings of a Diamond League meet in Stockholm.
Her phone has been ringing off the hook ever since. And she has been enjoying the attention. It has been a long and difficult road towards these rare moments in the sunlight.
Dobbin works two jobs — in reception and in the gatehouse at Loughborough University, where she trains and gained her qualifications in psychology — and
pays her own way to Birmingham every Thursday for treatments aimed at preventing the recurrence of past injuries.
During winter, she works seven days a week full-time to store up holidays she can use to travel to competitions during the athletics season.
She has no sponsor. No funding. No other source of income. Making the Scotland squad for the Commonwealth Games in April would have raised her profile, but she missed the qualifying standard by one-hundredth of a second and spent that fortnight tortured by friends and fellow athletes posting every special moment of their time on the Gold Coast on social media.
By her own admission, Dobbin has spent most of her career just missing out, but her recent surge into form speaks to a refusal to be cowed by adversity. It is an attitude born from a frightening episode in her early teens when, already showing promise on the track, a severe epileptic seizure left her feeling she was going to die and resulted in periods of learning to walk and talk again as well as taking strong medication before getting the disorder under control.
‘I was at school when it happened,’ she recalled. ‘It was at break time in a crowded place. My friends and peers were around and I can still remember their reaction as I was falling to the ground.
‘I actually thought I was dying. That was what was going through my head. That something was going wrong and this is it, you’re not going to make it through.
‘Ambulances were called and they thought I’d had a stroke. I lost all movement down my left side and it completely wiped my memory. My dad was in the hospital and I recognised him, but I didn’t know he was my dad.
‘I was 13 or 14 at the time and had to learn everything again. We are talking about walking and speaking. My brain recovered to a point where I could think about what I wanted to say but I couldn’t get the words out.
‘It was all kinds of little things. I was convinced that a microwave oven was called a cupboard and found myself getting really confused.
‘I’d been having little twitches before that — and no one really knew what they were. It was scary and humiliating. I recovered quite quickly and went back to school. Ninety per cent of people were nice, but others would comment on what happened and I struggled with that.
‘It took me a while to come back. I was on medication for three or four
years, drowsy a n d sleeping 14 hours a day, until things settled down. ‘I was inspired by Dai Greene, the Welsh athlete, though. I read that he had epilepsy and I owe him a lot because I’ve followed his advice on how eating well and sleeping well can prevent future seizures.
‘I got off the medication at 17 or 18, went to a competition and won a silver. When you’ve had it tough, it makes everything you achieve after that all the more valuable.
‘I was paranoid for a while about having another seizure and that really affected me during my
second year at uni. I think it became more psychological than physical and it can be a bit of a battle, but I am just proud of myself for being able to come out the other side. ‘I just have to stay on top of things because I wouldn’t want to put myself in a position where I could have a seizure as I couldn’t do my athletics any more.’ Dobbin’s recent achievements have certainly been reward for her determination. Her run at Eton saw her take her 200m time down from 23.14secs to 22.84s in one fell swoop, blowing away the 22.98s recorded by Whittaker at the Los Angeles Olympics.
The 22.83s that followed on a Stockholm track hardly renowned for fast sprinting has confirmed her belief there is far more to come. Dobbin and her coach, two-time Commonwealth gold medallist Leon Baptiste, give the impression the longer-term target is to become a 400m runner capable of competing in major championships in a relay team at the very least.
However, she is likely to hang around a little longer at 200m while there remains scope for improvement. Next up is the British Championships in Birmingham at the end of the month where a top-two finish will secure a place in Team GB for the Europeans in Berlin in August.
Make no mistake, the painful
I actually thought I was dying... I wasn’t sure if I would make it through
When you’ve had it tough, it makes every little thing you achieve after that all the more valuable
recollections of failing to make it to the Commonwealths will be with her, driving her on.
‘I can only describe that as heartbreak,’ she said. ‘I ran 23.31 at the start of July and had two months to qualify. I had it in my head that I was going. Even when I didn’t get the time, I still half had it in my mind that they might take me. When it didn’t work out, I just told myself that this can never, ever happen again.
‘Watching everyone out there on the TV and posting things on social media really did hurt. I had it in my mind every single session over the winter.
‘I am always just missing out. It was the same as a junior and I didn’t make the team for the world indoors when I wanted to. There are always little things, little setbacks, that tap into your emotions and really drive you on.
‘But an emotional runner can be a dangerous one because they go out all guns blazing and want that bit of success they feel has been taken away from them. I’ve always been hungry because I have never really had that kind of success or glory.’
Her doggedness must come from her dad, who inspired her love of athletics by taking her out on training runs aged eight.
Dobbin never really made the breakthrough at Celtic or Motherwell but went on to enjoy a long career in the lower leagues in England, making more than 100 appearances for Barnsley, winning medals with Grimsby Town and having two spells at Doncaster Rovers.
‘He played football at youth level for Scotland and it is so great to follow in his footsteps,’ said Beth. ‘I phoned him after I had broken the Scottish record and he was hysterical, crying, the lot.’
Dobbin links up with a company called Sports For Champions for those school visits she makes and, having also worked with children with autism after graduating, loves the thought of inspiring others.
‘I try to put across the message that I have never given up and now I am getting a bit of success,’ she said. ‘I hope it might help if they haven’t got the exam grades they want, for example.
‘That it might make them keep going back to try again.’