Aspiring model and Crohn's disease survivor Bethany Townsend posted a photo of herself clad in a bikini with her colostomy bag in tow. The said photo immediately went viral and gained her positive comments.
Townsend, who was fitted with two colostomy bags in 2010, initially thought that her modeling dreams were officially over, until her husband encouraged her to strip down during a trip to Mexico, according to People Magazine.
In an interview with BBC Midlands Today, she said, "My husband always said to me, 'If we go on holiday, I want you to wear a bikini. You've got a great body.'"
Townsend, who was interviewed by various publications revealed, "When I met Ian I showed him my bags straight away, but he didn't bat an eye lid. He taught me that there was more to me than the bags and would always encourage me to show off my figure."
After taking the controversial photo, Townsend decided to share her photo on Crohn's and Colitis UK's official Facebook page.
On the site, she captioned the photo, "I felt like I finally had the confidence after three-and-a-half years of having them that I wanted to give other girls the confidence, the guys the confidence, to be like, we have nothing to be ashamed of."
Townsend's photo immediately went viral online and this surprised her. "I never thought it would get a response like that. For me it's just a picture, but to so many other people, it's so much more."
Thousands of people responded positively to Townsend's photo. Facebook user Stephanie Reid said, "Isn't it amazing that we can have most of our guts removed and still show more 'Guts than everyone else combined xo."
Tara Paul wrote, "To be honest, the first thing I noticed were your amazing tattoos and how beautiful you are. The bag was only the 3rd thing I noticed."
