A US woman who had both her breasts removed after a battle with breast cancer has won the right to swim topless in a local public pool.
Jodi Jaecks, 45, had asked staff at the Seattle pool if she could swim topless because doing laps in a full swimming costume would have been too painful as she recovered from her double mastectomy, The Stranger newspaper reports.
Although staff at the pool did not have a problem with Ms Jaecks baring her chest, an aquatics manager for the city parks department demanded she cover up if she wanted to keep swimming at the pool, TV network KOMO 4 reports.
"If I called myself a man and walked into that pool they would have no problem with my body," Jaecks said.
"But if I am a woman who had breast cancer, with the exact same body, and I go in there, then it's offensive and inappropriate."
The city was forced to reverse its decision after Ms Jaecks' situation was made public earlier this week, causing a public outcry.
Parks Superintendent Christopher Williams said an exception to the pool's dress code would now be made for Ms Jaecks.
"In this case I see nothing that might alarm the public," he said.
Ms Jaecks, who is now the only woman in Seattle allowed to swim topless in public pools, said she was not happy with the city's decision to grant permission to other cancer survivors on a case-by-case basis.
"It's absurd and ludicrous that they would give one person permission because it puts the onus on a specific person to ask for permission individually," she told the Seattle Times.
"It's going to be harder for a more reserved, self-conscious woman to have the guts to stand out and be different."
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