Meet a Health Hero Finalist: Sharon Pervez-Khan
After her daughter Elora was diagnosed with an incurable, cancerous brain tumor, the Villanova mom made it her mission to accelerate research, funding, and life-saving treatment.
The first thing Sharon Pervez-Khan will tell you about her late daughter Elora is how she lit up any room she entered.
“Elora’s eyes were deeply expressive and sparkled when she smiled, and her laugh was contagious and full of personality,” says Pervez-Khan, who lives in Villanova with her husband Anthony and seven-year-old daughter Eliska. “She also found great joy in doing things that people were not expecting when they needed it most. She called them ‘God’s moments.’”
Elora was a playful child, who enjoyed soccer and piano, and hoped to be both a brain surgeon and a fashion designer — “in Elora’s world, you never had to choose between brilliance and beauty,” Pervez-Khan recalls, fondly.
In February of 2023, the family’s world turned upside down. Elora, who was six at the time, had an ear infection that wasn’t getting better with antibiotics. Then, an excruciating headache presented. Pervez-Khan took Elora to CHOP, where an MRI showed a growth in her brain stem.
The diagnosis: Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a highly aggressive and incurable tumor that grows in the pons, an area of the brain stem responsible for essential functions such as breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, and swallowing. DIPG affects primarily children between the ages of five and 10, and currently, there are no known risk factors. Symptoms come on quickly, the cancer progresses rapidly. Most children with DIPG die of the disease within just two years of the tumor’s discovery.
Just 24 hours after being diagnosed, Elora underwent brain surgery to create an alternate route for brain fluid to flow into her spine because the tumor was blocking its path.
“It was a lot to take in,” Pervez-Khan says of that bewildering day. “I had brought Elora in for an ear infection, and, instead, was told my child needed brain surgery for an incurable cancer.”
Photographs of Elora courtesy of Sharon Pervez-Khan
In the months that followed, Elora received radiation treatment that temporarily shrank the tumor, which allowed her to continue going to school and to celebrate her seventh birthday. It was during this time, traveling to and from hospital visits and doctor’s appointments that Elora came up with the idea for a foundation that would support families who were navigating the same, grave disease she was fighting. “She just wanted to help others,” Pervez-Khan says.
On September 9th, only seven months after her diagnosis, Elora passed away. Her legacy lives on through the Elora J. Khan Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission, Pervez-Khan says, is to “transform the future of pediatric brain cancer through research, advocacy, family support, education, and compassionate service.” It provides direct financial assistance to families during treatment and bereavement, and raises funds via events like Elora For a Cure, an annual, county fair-style brunch, and Cleats Out for Elora, a tournament run by CASA, a major local amateur soccer league. (Elora’s father, Anthony, is a long-time player.)
The organization also helps fund My DIPG Navigator, a national service that connects families with informed nurse navigators to help better understand and manage care for their children.
Pervez-Khan has been relentless in trying to initiate change for families impacted by DIPG. She’s knocked on countless doors, called over 150 legislators, and invested money into the Children’s Brain Tumor Network, a global research program dedicated to brain and spinal cord pediatric tumors. (The family has donated some of Elora’s DNA to the network, to help advance the science.)
She has also been named a finalist in this year’s Be Well Philly Health Hero Challenge, presented by Independence Blue Cross.
Voting is open for the 2026 challenge. Vote for your favorite finalist today!
For Elora’s family, there is comfort that these efforts, even though they are fueled by grief and loss. This year, the foundation spearheaded Pennsylvania’s first coordinated statewide pediatric brain cancer awareness initiative: On June 15th, which would have been Elora’s 10th birthday, Governor Josh Shapiro proclaimed “Elora Joyce Khan Pediatric Brain Cancer Awareness Day” across the Commonwealth; the Pennsylvania House and Senate both passed bipartisan resolutions; and the City of Philadelphia and Philadelphia City Council each adopted resolutions recognizing the day and calling attention to the urgent need for pediatric brain cancer research. Landmarks across the state, including the Capitol building and City Hall, lit up purple and blue to honor children and families impacted by DIPG.
The foundation is now working with legislators to introduce a funding bill specifically for pediatric brain cancer research and, hopefully, treatment, which would be the first of its kind in Pennsylvania.
“DIPG is a silent adversary,” Pervez-Khan says. “It advances quickly, it steals mercilessly, it claims every single child that it touches — and still, there’s still no cure. That’s why our goal is to turn awareness into movement and movement into change.
Change is long overdue. Pervez-Khan notes that it has been 64 years since Karen Anne Armstrong, the daughter of American astronaut Neil Armstrong, died of DIPG, a death that made headlines. She was two and a half years old. How is it allowable that the odds of surviving the disease have not budged an inch since then?
“Years from now, I hope that Elora’s legacy represents love turned into action,” she adds. “Even during her illness, Elora never lost sight of that light, that spark she had. I hope people remember her not only as a little girl who faced something incredibly hard, but who faced something with a lot of courage and faith, whose life helped bring people together to fight for children who deserve more time. I hope her name becomes connected to compassion and advocacy and research and hope for families walking this road after us, and that her legacy reminds people that even one small child can leave a powerful impact.”
Sharon Pervez-Khan is one of the finalists in the 2026 Be Well Philly Health Hero Challenge presented by Independence Blue Cross. The award recognizes nonprofit leaders, medical professionals, frontline health workers, nonprofit leaders, teachers, coaches, entrepreneurs, and community activists who are making a positive impact on community health and wellness.
Each year, the public nominates individuals who inspire them, then votes to select a winner who receives a $15,000 donation to the charity of their choice. Two runners-up each receive a $2,500 donation to the charity of their choice. You can vote for your favorite finalist once per day, every day until September 30th.
