amputation

Ruth Codd, who is in this year’s The Celebrity Traitors on BBC One alongside 18 other stars, wants to raise awareness about amputations following a horrific injury

Ruth Codd – the Irish actress in The Celebrity Traitors – described her leg amputation as the “greatest challenge” she has ever faced.

The star’s candid interview, which has resurfaced following her appearance in the new series last night, details why Ruth, now 29, had her right leg amputated below the knee. The actress had injured her foot playing football when she was 15 and, in around 2019, she suffered further complications which led to the surgery.

Ruth, from Wexford, Ireland, said she made the decision to help relieve the pain and gain more control over her life. Ruth has learned in the subsequent years to use a prosthetic leg, she told the Irish Examiner. This interview from 2022 has resurfaced today following interest on Ruth and her injury.

She said: “My injury is the greatest challenge I’ve faced in my life so far. I injured it playing soccer at the age of 15. It never healed correctly so until I was 23, I was on and off crutches, getting loads of operations. Because of nerve damage and chronic pain, I chose to get it amputated. It took eight years of my life, constantly going in and out of hospital.

“My whole life revolved around trying to heal my leg. For years, I didn’t see it getting any better. I was stuck in a really bad mindset and I was pissed off at life. When I made the decision to amputate it, things finally started to turn around. It was a relief. I could get on my life.”

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In The Celebrity Traitors, Ruth and 18 other stars compete to prove themselves as either a Faithful or a Traitor. The other celebs include actor and broadcaster Sir Stephen Fry and Olympian Tom Daley.

Ruth, who portrayed Anya in the Netflix thriller series The Midnight Club, previously spoke of her delight to partake in the show. Her enthusiasm was mirrored by the BBC unscripted director Syeda Irtizaali, who said of the show in the summer: “It was a real pleasure to cast this series. I think where we started with was we wanted to have a really broad range of people, obviously, but we also wanted people that were real fans of the show, that really understood it.

“I was worried about it; I was worried about how they were going to play it compared to members of the public, but we have nothing to worry about. They really play the game, and some of the things that you’ll see them doing are extraordinary; that’s all I’m going to say. It’s well worth the wait.”

Hosted by Claudia Winkleman, The Celebrity Traitors will air on Wednesdays on BBC One and iPlayer.

ISTANBUL — During a pool training session months ago, Ukrainian war veteran Oleh Tserkovnyi was struck by an idea: What if a group of veterans swam across the strait of Bosphorus, between Turkey’s European and Asian shores? And if they did it on Aug. 24, Ukraine’s Independence Day?

The symbolism of the day would draw attention to the toll and devastation inflicted by Russia’s full-out war on Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

When the 34-year-old pitched the idea to fellow veterans in their One for Another support group, none raised injuries, particularly their amputations, as a barrier. Two joined him right away.

They trained for months, with the support of Superhumans Center, a veterans’ rehabilitation clinic in Ukraine, and coached by CapitalTRI, an amateur triathlon team in Kyiv. They agreed their race would have another goal — to raise money for prosthetics, which remain costly and urgently needed by many of Ukraine’s wounded.

“We’re not asking for pity,” Tserkovnyi told The Associated Press shortly before the competition. “We’re asking for support.”

A race that links continents

After months of rigorous training, discipline and physical challenges, the three Ukrainian veterans on Sunday joined more than 2,800 swimmers from 81 countries in the 6.5-kilometer (4-mile) crossing from Asia to Europe.

The Bosphorus Intercontinental Swimming Race is an open-water event held each year in Istanbul, organized by the Turkish Olympic Committee since 1989.

All three Ukrainians completed the crossing, each swimming for more than an hour. The two veterans with amputations faced setbacks even before the start — the organizers initially barred them from competing, insisting they have to be in a separate category for people with disabilities.

But they persevered and swam the race, alongside the others.

For the Ukrainians, it wasn’t just about endurance but about reclaiming control over bodies transformed by war — and sharing their recovery with a world that often seems indifferent to the injuries they carry.

Seeking balance in the water

Sports had always been a part of Tserkovnyi’s life, but war and injury pushed him to use it as a survival tool after two severe, life-changing concussions — a bridge back to life for war veterans with disabilities.

“Sport itself heals — we’ve seen that firsthand,” he said. “And the community, it pulls you through. It pushes you, it disciplines you.”

When he speaks, he’s quick to point out the changes he sees in himself — the stutter, the involuntary twitch in his eye.

“It’s what’s left over. It used to be much worse,” he said.

Both of his concussions were the result of prolonged exposure to artillery fire while serving on the front line. He was a sniper when the second one hit. Afterward, he said, it felt like he had lost his sense of balance entirely.

“There were times I could walk, but then suddenly I’d just tip over like a pencil,” Tserkovnyi said. “I have third-degree hearing loss on one side, no peripheral vision.”

The sense of being “a sick person,” he said, felt so foreign to him that he threw himself into recovery with everything he had. For a long time, he also had PTSD symptoms, including dramatic flashbacks to the war.

But it was in the pool that he found a way to recognize the warning signs. “I began to understand what triggers them, when they come, and how to stay ahead of them,” he said.

A path back to oneself

Engineer Pavlo Tovstyk signed up as a volunteer in the early days after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Serving as a driver in an intelligence unit, he stepped on a landmine in June 2023.

The blast took his foot and subsequent surgeries led to a partial amputation of his left leg.

The 47-year-old, who used to be an active swimmer as a child, never thought swimming would become a lifeline. He was still recovering from his injury when he began sneaking into the swimming pool, keeping it a secret from the doctors.

“Water became a kind of savior for me,” he said. “At the time, everything felt disoriented. But in the water, my thoughts, my strength, my body — it all came together again. I became myself again. Just … different.”

The idea to swim the strait in Turkey started almost as a dare, then became a plan.

“To cross the Bosphorus, you need not just physical strength, but a certain mindset — a state of determination that all of us managed to find within ourselves,” he said.

Calm found in purpose

Oleksandr Dashko discovered swimming only after losing his left leg.

The 28-year-old had joined the military at the start of the Russian invasion and served in the infantry in various front-line areas.

In June 2023, a mine exploded near him and shrapnel tore into his knee.

“I didn’t take it very graciously, let’s say,” he said as he recounted the conflicted feelings that tormented him for so long. Adjustment to life with an amputation has been slow and mentally taxing.

It was only over the past year that he was able to focus on physical rehabilitation — and swimming, he said, has become the activity that brings him a sense of calm.

The challenge of swimming the Bosphorus became a purpose for Dashko.

“When I do nothing, I slip back to that state right after the injury — depression, apathy, the feeling that the amputation is winning,” he said. “But when something like this shows up on my path, it gives me a jolt — to live, to move forward, to motivate others.”

Physical goals, he said, help anchor him. He hopes for more such challenges, not just for himself, but for other veterans.

“Honestly, if it weren’t for this, I’d probably be drunk and lying under a fence somewhere,” he said.

Maloletka and Arhirova write for the Associated Press. Arhirova reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.