A DEMONSTRATION is set to take place in the city centre this month to highlight the plight of ME sufferers across the globe.

Southampton Guildhall Square will be one of 90 worldwide sites demonstrating from May 5 to 12 as part of the week-long campaign #MillionsMissing.

The campaign is calling on health officials and the government to end the inequality of funding and research into the debilitating illness.

ME is a long-term neurological condition that causes symptoms affecting many body systems, commonly the nervous and immune systems.

Emma Tripp, 17, from Chandler’s Ford has suffered from ME for three years.

She woke one morning unable to go to school and due to her illness she did not make it back into school until the age of 16-years-old.

It was discovered later that Emma had had the Epstein-Barr Virus and did not recover.

Emma has undertaken the two-day CPET (cardiopulmonary exercise test) considered to be the gold standard in determining level of disability.

Emma’s results confirmed that she suffered from the cardinal ME symptom of post exceptional malaise and put her in the moderate-severe category of ME.

She receives enhanced rate PIP for her mobility needs and standard rate for her daily living needs.

She has been receiving support through the child psychology department at Southampton General Hospital. However, she will be discharged at the end of April despite still having ME and still needing support.

Emma’s mum, Claire Tripp, organised the Millions Missing event in Southampton last year.

She said: “In 2018 we had over 400 pairs of shoes in Guildhall Square, each one representing a person with ME who is desperate for more funding into their disease so they can get their lives back.”

The demonstration, set to start at midday on May 12, will see the lining up of empty shoes of ME sufferers from across the UK.