Row over Jo’s‘nude’ photoson Facebook

She posted them on the social networking site in a bid to inspire other women. But Facebook said some of the images – showing Joanne’s surgery scar – were offensive.

And the 40-year-old from Thornhill has now been warned that any more ‘abusive breaches’ could lead to her account being shut down.

But Joanne is unrepentant. “I don’t have any qualms,” she said. “I’m confident and not one for shying away from things.

“I can’t understand why Facebook have a problem with this. What do they class as nudity? I simply wanted to show people that a mastectomy doesn’t mean you are any less attractive or any less of a woman.”

To drive home her point, Joanne has uploaded the pictures again and so have many of her friends.

“I would rather Facebook ban me or take the photos off than for me to give in to them,” said Joanne, a Slimming World consultant, who said there had been a positive result from the pictures being published in a magazine.

Joanne, who is married to self-employed cobbler Andrew and has two sons, Connah, 19, and Evan, five, only found she had breast cancer after dieting and losing five stones in weight. It turned out she had two types of cancer in her left breast.

The man who took the pictures, Paul Hodgson, is married to one of Joanne’s friends. He said: “The message here is that this person has not given up. Just because you can see where her breast used to be is not pornographic, nor is it erotic.”

Joanne doesn’t know who reported the site to Facebook, but the site said in a message that the images breached its terms and conditions.

A spokesman said: “Shares which contain nudity, pornography and graphic sexual content are not permitted. Additional violations may result in termination of the account.”

Meanwhile, Joanne’s friends have taken up the fight and the images have been re-posted across the globe.

Joanne said: “I decided breast cancer wasn’t going to define me. There is life after mastectomy. I knew I could kick cancer’s ass – and I did.”

• See the Reporter’s May 25 edition to see the offending picture.