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A Childwall grandmother got her daughter kicked off Facebook after being shared more than 50,000 times.

Maureen McWilliams, 85, became a bizarre online sensation when a photo of her standing next to a sunflower went viral and reeled in thousands of likes and comments on Facebook.

The picture was posted online by Maureen’s daughter Susan but she had her Facebook account removed on Tuesday after the photo blew up.

The social media site told Susan her account had been removed because it was “pretending to be someone else“ which goes against Facebook’s Community standards.

Susan said: “Goodness knows why someone would say such a thing. Maybe it just broke facebook as we went up to 98,000 likes by 9.30pm last night! And growing.

“All a bit surreal really.”

Facebook asked Susan to send them a government-issued ID to prove that she was a real person and her account has since been reinstated.

The photo of Maureen showing off her sunflower has now had over 100,000 likes and more than 50,000 shares. Susan said her mum was “on cloud nine“ over the attention her botanical efforts had garnered online.

Viral Facebook posts are now commonplace but they usually tend to involve cats doing funny things or people emptying buckets of ice over themselves.

Somehow Susan’s simple post of her mum stood next to a sunflower has managed to attract Facebook fans from as far afeild as Nova Scotia!

Speaking to the ECHO when the post first went viral on Monday, Susan said: “My mum lost my dad a few years ago and it was his birthday on September 12 so she’s been quite down about it really.

“I posted the picture on Facebook to cheer her up and it got shared a few hundred times.

The picture in all its glory...

“Soon it was at 5,000 and she was so happy - she thinks she’s famous. I keep calling her every few hours, but she couldn’t believe when she saw the latest total at over 25,000.

“I’ve no idea why it is so popular, people seem to really like her smile. She loves gardening and she looks so happy, I think people just enjoy seeing something happy.”

Kim Kardashian may be the queen of social media but this Scouse gran has also managed to ‘break the internet’ with her green-fingered grinning.