Maria Menounos

As she was caring for her mother, who has stage 4 brain cancer Maria discovered she was facing an illness of her own. In February 2014 Menounos started experiencing troubling symptoms. "I'd felt lightheaded when I was on set and had migraines" she tells PEOPLE in its exclusive feature. My speech was becoming difficult to understand, and I also had difficult getting the teleprompter to understand. A MRI discovered that Menounos suffered from a large golf ball-sized meningioma brain tumor which was pushing onto her facial nerves. Menounos booked an appointment to visit her neurosurgeon mother, Dr. Keith L. Black. Surgery was scheduled on June 8 for Menounos' 39th birthday. The doctor told her that, "I am 98 percent certain it is benign, but it is not certain until we get into there," The complex procedure, lasting about 7 hours, Dr. Black was able to take out 99.9 per cent of the cancer. This was not cancerous. She says that Dr. Black said it was possible to see the tumor come back in six-to seven percent of cases. This is my most reliable choice. Now back at home after six days in the hospital Menounos is recovering and spending moments with mother Litsa who's most recent MRI shows that her cancer remains solid.