Four and a half years after learning he was cancer-free, Jeremy Bowen, the international editor of the BBC, said he is "counting his blessings.".
After experiencing "funny pains in my legs and in my back" while reporting in Iraq, the Cardiff-born journalist revealed his bowel cancer diagnosis in 2019.
On BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, he revealed that he underwent chemotherapy for "quite a serious tumor.".
Jeremy's "glass is half-full" attitude disappeared while he was ill, but he claimed that surviving has "brought back the more optimistic Jeremy.".
He claimed, "I think that has also helped me gain a sense of perspective on life.
During his forty years with the BBC, he covered more than 70 nations and 20 wars, including the Middle East, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Africa, Central America, and most recently, Ukraine.
Along with presenting documentaries, he also briefly hosted BBC Breakfast.
On BBC Breakfast in 2000, Jeremy Bowen and Sophie Raworth appeared.
Bowen discussed the effects of witnessing a war firsthand on his mental health.
There have been some very challenging times, he admitted. "A few years ago, I developed very severe depression.
"I left work for a while. I used medicine. I believe that life is all about counting your blessings and letting go of the little things. " .
As a BBC correspondent, Jeremy Bowen covered the Syrian conflict.
He recalled feeling a little invincible during his first war reporting assignment in El Salvador in 1989.
He remarked, "It was so vivid. It was like being in my own war film. ".
He claimed he had no idea what "shots fired in anger" meant at the time.
"They were close by. I believe my excitement was high. " .
Due to the growth of social media and the internet, reporting from a war zone is very different today, he claimed.
"I think it's made journalists themselves more exposed, it's more dangerous," he said, adding that "unscrupulous" actors can now try to "influence" by murdering reporters.
You get a lot of attention, and when I started, it was much simpler to be perceived as a non-combatant, he said. When we waved white flags in El Salvador, people would halt their shooting and allow us to cross the street. ".
When Bowen was six years old, he saw his father returning from covering the Aberfan disaster while wearing black slurry-covered pants.
For her reporting on the murder of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and an interview with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Bowen has received numerous honors, including a Royal Television Society award.
However, the 2014 Baftu Cyrmu winner never lost sight of his Welsh heritage.
He claimed that his father Gareth worked as a reporter for newspapers before moving on to work for BBC Wales, while his mother Jennifer was a press photographer who began her career at the Merthyr Express.
He remembered that for him, it was something he constantly breathed. When I was a child, one of my most enduring memories is drifting off to sleep to the sound of his manual typewriter pounding away on the dining room table. ".
He recalled, when he was six years old, seeing his father, who had spent three days covering the 1966 Aberfan disaster, return home with his trousers "caked in this black slurry.".
He recalled wanting to be a foreign correspondent even when he was a 10-year-old schoolboy growing up in Whitchurch, Cardiff.
I was always a little weird, so I didn't even know what it was," he laughed. I could never quite fit in. ".
On June 4th's Desert Island Discs, Jeremy Bowen spoke with Lauren Laverne. BBC Sounds has the episode available.
