Maria Menounos

Maria was helping her mother who had the stage 4 brain cancer. The doctor told her that she had a serious health situation. In February 2014 Menounos started experiencing troubling symptoms. "I'd been getting lightheaded on set and having migraines" the actress tells PEOPLE in the magazine's exclusive new cover story. My speech had become difficult to understand, and I also had difficult understanding the teleprompter. Menounos had been diagnosed as having a massive meningioma brain tumor. A MRI confirmed this. Menounos booked an appointment to see her mother's doctor famous neurosurgeon Dr. Keith L. Black who scheduled the surgery on June 8, her 39th birthday. He told her, "I am 98 percent sure that it's benign but we'll never know until we go into the," Dr. Black managed to eliminate 99.9% of benign tumors in a complex procedure that took 7 hours. According to her, Dr. Black told her that it's possible for the tumor to come back in six-to seven percent of the cases. "But I'll go with those odds anytime." Back at home following a six-day hospital stay, Menounos is recovering and spending moments with mother, Litsa who's most recent MRI proves her cancer is healthy.