Heroes Star Greg Grunberg: 'My Son Is My Hero'

Greg Grunberg plays a mind-reading police officer on the TV hit show Heroes. But Greg insists he's not the hero in the family,

"Jake is my hero, he really is," Grunberg, 41, stated about his 12-year-old son, who has epilepsy. "He doesn't let anything stop him, and to deal with everything with your head up high, that to me is a true hero."

Greg says Jake is doing well, regardless of his many setbacks due to his epilepsy,

"[Jake is] doing well [though] it's tough because he's also going through puberty and having one to two seizures a week, including one episode a few minutes before his school's talent show, where he was scheduled to do a Taekwondo routine to the Rocky theme song "Eye of the Tiger. I was like, Jake, don't worry about [the show], it's not a big deal. But he had this steel look in his eyes and said, 'I'm doing it.' If that happened to me I would go home and bury my head in the sand. He doesn't let anything stand in his way. I'm so lucky to be his dad."

Greg Grunberg plays a mind-reading police officer on the TV hit show Heroes. But Greg insists he's not the hero in the family,

"Jake is my hero, he really is," Grunberg, 41, stated about his 12-year-old son, who has epilepsy. "He doesn't let anything stop him, and to deal with everything with your head up high, that to me is a true hero."

Greg says Jake is doing well, regardless of his many setbacks due to his epilepsy,

"[Jake is] doing well [though] it's tough because he's also going through puberty and having one to two seizures a week, including one episode a few minutes before his school's talent show, where he was scheduled to do a Taekwondo routine to the Rocky theme song "Eye of the Tiger. I was like, Jake, don't worry about [the show], it's not a big deal. But he had this steel look in his eyes and said, 'I'm doing it.' If that happened to me I would go home and bury my head in the sand. He doesn't let anything stand in his way. I'm so lucky to be his dad."

His son has inspired Greg to raise awareness about the neurological disorder, which includes raising funds for pediatric epilepsy research.

A group of TV stars have joined a band to help raise funds. Greg plays drums, with House's Hugh Laurie on piano, Desperate Housewives' James Denton on guitar and Cashmere Mafia's Bonnie Somerville and former Bachelor Bob Guiney on vocals. The band, who performed on American Idol's Idol Gives Back show, will perform and host the Ford Flex Rally, a charity event in Los Angeles on June 21.

Greg and his wife Elizabeth, 41, also have 2 younger boys Ben, 8, and Sam, 4,

"In our house we say we all have epilepsy. We're all watching out for him. We're all going through this together."

Source: People

Photo: Pacific Coast News