A STUNNING brunette has become an internet sensation after bravely posting a bikini snap on Facebook that exposes her colostomy bags.

The photo — which shows the first time Bethany Townsend, 23, dared to bare after being fitted with two colostomy bags — has now been viewed by an incredible nine million people.

Bethany, a makeup artist from Worcester in the UK, has been so overwhelmed by the response that she can finally acknowledge that the colostomy bags doesn’t define who she is.

“I didn’t expect this kind of reaction at all,” she said of the picture.

“When I first had the bags fitted I was devastated — the reaction to this photo has really helped me accept them.

“The photo has been seen by millions of people ... I’m just so glad that it’s brought about more awareness of Crohn’s disease, and it’s made me feel so much more confident.”

Bethany was fitted with her colostomy bags after battling with Crohn’s disease since the age of three. It is a condition that causes inflammation of the digestive system, affecting the sufferer’s ability to digest food, absorb nutrients and eliminate waste.

In extreme situations like Bethany’s, it becomes necessary to remove the damaged section of the intestine and bring the healthy part out as a stoma — known as a colostomy.

After almost dying when her bowel ruptured in 2010, Bethany woke from a life-saving operation to find she had been fitted with two colostomy bags.

“Growing up I’d had various surgeries to try and combat the Crohn’s,” said Townsend. “I’d go in and have sections of my intestine cut out, but I’d only be in remission for a couple of weeks before it came back again.

“Then, four years ago I woke up in the morning and couldn’t move because I was in so much agony. I had to break a glass on the floor to alert my mum who called on ambulance. When the paramedics came they lifted up my top to see that my surgery scar had split open. I was rushed to intensive care where they doctors told me family I would need more surgery as my intestines had become infected and inflamed again. I had no idea when I woke up that I would have the bags.

“When I first woke up and my mum told me about them I was just relieved as I’d thought I was going to die. When I came out of hospital and everything finally sunk in, I remember going upstairs into my bedroom and just bursting into tears.

“I’d known a colostomy bag might have been an option but it was always something that I had wanted to avoid. I had a really good cry that day, and since then I haven’t shed another tear — I’ve just got on with it I suppose.”

It was only after Townsend met and married her husband, Ian, 33, and jetted off to Mexico last Christmas that she finally felt ready to embrace the colostomy bags.

“When I met Ian I showed him my bags straight away, but he didn’t bat an eye lid — I actually felt like I was overreacting,” she said.

“He taught me that there was more to me than the bags and would always encourage me to show off my figure. I wasn’t sure but in Mexico I finally realised he was right, and decided to wear my bikini.

“At first I was nervous and worried that people would stare but it was fine. The staff at the hotel asked me about the bags on the last day of the holiday, but rather than being offended I was glad because it meant I could talk to them about Crohn’s and tell them what it is.

“I decided to get in touch with Crohn’s and Colitis UK Facebook group to see if they would let me post something on their page. I sent them the picture and my information, and it all blew up from there.”

Townsend still suffers from Crohn’s disease and hopes ones day for a cure, but for now she is considering getting back into modelling — a career she gave up on after she was fitted with the bags.

“I feel confident enough now to put myself out there and pursue modelling again,” she said.

“I did a little bit of work here and there before I had the colostomy bags, but once I had them fitted I thought that was the end of the dream. I’m looking forward to chasing my goals, and I know now that nothing can hold me back.

“I won’t let the Crohn’s control me anymore.”