The 29-year-old Wexford woman appeared on the programme last week to reflect on a landmark year professionally and personally, joking that she “could have done without” the surgery, which took place in November.
Ms Codd previously had one leg amputated at the age of 23 after complications arising from a serious injury she sustained as a teenager. Speaking to host Patrick Kielty, she explained that the injury occurred when she was 15 and “just kicking a ball around” with friends, but it failed to heal properly and ultimately led to a series of medical setbacks.
“I didn’t even play football,” she told host Kielty. “I was just kicking around a ball with my friends. I just fell. It was just a bad break. It didn’t heal properly. And I think there was a couple of things that went wrong with treating it initially and just kind of spiralled.”
She went on to have 10 operations with number 11 being her first amputation. Two months on from her second amputation in November, Ruth is still getting used to her “new normal”. On Friday, she walked across the Late Late Show stage to join fellow guest, English comedian John Bishop and with the help of her National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) physio, has been able to get back horse riding.
Ruth Codd was a contestant on BBC1’s smash-hit show, The Celebrity Traitors (Handout/PA)
As well as starring in the hit BBC programme The Celebrity Traitors, The Fall of the House of Usher and The Midnight Club and the motion picture How to Train your Dragon, “I got my legs chopped off on top of all of that,” she remarked.
“A lot of times, people say to me, ‘Oh, well you chose it. It was your choice’, because it was an elective amputation. But surgeons just don’t go chopping off limbs willy-nilly.
“It was the only way for my quality of life to improve, and I’m not willing to spend my entire life in a hospital bed for the sake of keeping a leg that doesn’t work…
“I’m not going to say that my life is the same. It’s different, but in a good way, I think.”
In a statement following her appearance on Friday, she reflected on being just a month on from taking her first steps and expressed her sincere thanks to the team at the NRH.
“I work in an industry that isn’t necessarily the most accessible or understanding of disabled people. When I entered the NRH I was overworked and honestly, overwhelmed. I was starting to believe that there wasn’t a place for someone like me in the film industry,” she wrote.
“The kindness and patience I have experienced from every single member of staff there has made me realise that when I advocate for myself on set, as exhausting as it is sometimes, I’m not only standing up for my needs but hopefully can make it a little easier for the next disabled person that deserves a shot at a doing something they love. Accessibility is not a luxury it’s a human right and the bare minimum.”