Kaohsiung County Magistrate Yang Chiu-hsing, who is a cancer survivor, stressed Monday the importance of regular health checks, saying they are crucial to early detection of malignancies. On a TV talk show, Yang said that at one point he was very depressed but that fortunately for him his colonic cancer was discovered and removed in the early stages. Yang was diagnosed with cancer in 2007, but it was found that the malignancy had penetrated only the superficial layer of the bowel wall and had not spread to any other organs. The doctors removed part of his colon but did not require that he have chemotherapy. 'I didn't really realize the importance of health checks until the cancer was discovered and I was recovering from surgery, ' Yang said. Li Jing, who hosted the show, commiserated with him, saying that she herself has had surgery for cerebral aneurysms. Yang is serving his second term as the elected magistrate of Kaohsiung County and has been ranked three times in Global View Magazine polls as having one of the highest approval ratings among magistrates in the country. 