Maria Menounos

Maria discovered that she had a personal health crisis as she was caring for her mother, who had cancer of the brain in stage 4. In February 2014 Menounos started experiencing troubling symptoms. "I'd felt lightheaded during filming and suffering headaches" she tells PEOPLE in the magazine's exclusive new front page story. My speech was getting blurred and I was having difficulty understanding the teleprompter. An MRI confirmed Menounos to have a very large meningioma brain tumor that has grown to the size as a golf ball. It was pressing on the facial nerves. Menounos had an appointment scheduled to see her mother's doctor renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Keith L. Black to schedule surgery for June 8-her 39th birthday. "He stated, 'I'm 98 percent sure that it's benign, but we won't know until we get in there,'" she says. In the arduous surgery lasting about 7 hours Dr. Black was able to get rid of 99.9 percent of the tumour. The result was considered to be benign. "He told me there's a six to seven percent chance that we'll see it come back," she says. They're my best choice. Menounos has returned home from an extended stay of six days in the hospital. Menounos is recuperating and spending time with Litsa, her mother. Litsa's recent MRI confirms that she's still free of cancer.