A regional daily reporter who is battling cancer has written a first-person piece about his ambition to return to work and write another front page lead.

Neal Keeling, left,of the Manchester Evening News, wrote about his battle with the disease after being told last month that tumours in his lungs, right hip and shoulder had shrunk.

In the piece, he describes the difficulties he and his family have faced during the last “nine months of turmoil” which included an operation to remove his left kidney, which was surrounded by a tumour.

The Manchester City fan also wrote about his dreams of returning to the MEN after fighting his illness and getting another front page story.

Wrote Neal:  “My ambitions are modest – to write another front page for the MEN and watch Zaba captain the Blues to another trophy having defeated my own ‘enemy.”

In the piece Neal also revealed that he received the good news about the progress of his illness from a United-supporting doctor.

Neal wrote: “Professor Robert Hawkins asked me how I was. When I told him an arthritic-type pain was raging in my arms, legs, hands, and feet, he looked disappointed. Then he told us: “Well the results of the scan are good.”

“Felicity and I didn’t punch the air. After nine months of turmoil our reaction was disbelief that maybe our luck was changing, followed by silent euphoria and a touch of hands. Again pain and discomfort left my body for a while.

“The year 2012 was unforgettable. City won the Premier League and a life-threatening disease set up camp in my already creaking 53-year-old frame.

“When Aguero snaked beyond the QPR defence to score THAT goal, my daughter Grace ran upstairs to tell me. I was in bed, felled by exhaustion.

“Four days later a scan revealed a tumour locked around my left kidney and within two weeks I had major surgery to remove the kidney.

“But the tumour was the most aggressive kind and the cancer had spread to my bones and lungs. August and October I was in Manchester’s Christie Clinic receiving a tough regime of immunotherapy.”

Neal also wrote about how the side effects of his treatment but said the disease had also left him appreciating life in a new way.

His piece can be read in full here.