Actor James Denton has sold off his Los Angeles home and moved his family to Minnesota to help support his sister-in-law through her breast cancer battle.

The former Desperate Housewives star and his wife Erin left Hollywood and set up home with their kids in Minneapolis this summer (12) after deciding there was nothing more important than family.

Denton explains, "(Desperate) Housewives was over and we thought they could use a little help. They were 50/50 breadwinners and she lost her job, and she was studying to be a nurse, in nursing school, so we thought, let's do the family thing, so we sold the house in L.A. and we live in Minneapolis."

And the actor reveals his sister-in-law May is doing really well: "It's been great, she's been through all the chemo and she's actually stayed in nursing school, which we couldn't believe... but she did it, and she just got hired as an Rn (Registered Nurse)."

Denton admits the reason for the big move was particularly poignant for him because it came a decade after losing his own mother to the same deadly disease.