Maria Menounos

Maria was helping her mother with the stage 4 brain cancer. Maria was able to recognize that she had an extremely serious health condition. In February 2014 Menounos started experiencing troubling symptoms. "I'd noticed that I was feeling lightheaded when I was on set and had headaches" the actress tells PEOPLE in its exclusive cover story. "My speech had gotten lost and I had difficulty comprehending the prompter". A MRI showed Menounos to be suffering from a massive meningioma brain tumor that was growing to the size that of a golf ball. It was pushing on her facial nerves. Menounos booked an appointment to consult her mom's neurosurgeon, Dr. Keith L. Black. The surgery was scheduled for June 8, Menounos 39th birthday. The doctor told her that, "I am 98 percent convinced that this is a benign condition, but we will not know until we get into there," The complex operation took about seven hours, and the doctor. Black was capable of taking out 99.9% of the benign cancer. According Dr. Black, there is 7 percent likelihood of the tumor recurring. "But I'll take the odds every day." Menounos, who was admitted to hospital for 6 days, is currently at home and is spending her time healing.