RALEIGH, N.C. — The pandemic has been throwing kinks in birthday celebrations for people all over the country since the spread of COVID-19 on American shores began.

A year later, the coronavirus isn’t the sole reason Lorelei Colbert is adapting her 29th birthday plans. She is resting at home safely with her husband Andrew because on St. Patrick’s Day, she will  be on an operating table.

A day after her birthday, she will receive a double-mastectomy for her breast cancer, followed by a reconstructive surgery at the Womack Army Medical Center.

The September 15, 2020 cancer diagnosis has forever changed the life of Colbert, and likely tens of thousands of people around the world.

The reasons a woman living in Southern Pines draws eyes to a computer screen like an Instagram influencer are not because of surface level content shares. In a time ruled by COVID-19, Colbert has global reach because she is using the cancer inside her own body to generate acts of good.

In an early January interview with Spectrum News 1, Colbert said hearing a doctor tell her she had an aggressive form of breast cancer marked a pivotal moment in her young life.

“At the end of the day, this is potentially the hardest battle of my life I might face at 28 years old,” she says.

Had she not needed a physical in order to move overseas with her husband to be stationed at an Army base in Japan, she may not have found the lump in her right breast at all.

The physical led to a breast screening that stopped the relocation before either of them boarded a plane. Colbert credits a kind and enthusiastic nurse as the woman who saved her life. Although it was not mandatory, she says when the nurse asked if she would like a breast exam, she voluntarily chose to do it.

That decision is still shaping what’s currently happening in her life.

“That’s what completely changed my life, is by going to get my appointment,” she says.

This is where the story gets good.

“Every day gratitude has led the way. Where every day, I just wake up and I just feel grateful that we found the lump,” Colbert says.

In the time right after her diagnosis, Colbert did some serious contemplation about how she would approach the coming days and months of a tiresome fight against the disease. Beginning in October, she would face a regimen of chemotherapy and other treatments to stymy the effects of the cancer.

“How do I want to face this in my own way?” Colbert said in her initial interview.

One thing Colbert practices as a personal mantra is gratitude.

On her first day of chemotherapy, October 19, she launched a social media campaign unlike anything else Spectrum News 1 has covered during the pandemic in North Carolina. Instead of allowing her day-to-day struggles with cancer to become a negative spiral to her psyche, she created a website, and coined the “Chemo to Kindness Challenge”. In order to be a part of the challenge, all she asked was for participants to do something simple and kind. Each person who visited the site could submit an act of kindness if they wanted.

“Any sort of act of kindness. Whether it be holding the door open for someone, making a monetary donation to a charity they care about, helping their community, and then tell me about it,” Colbert says.

In the first of many live broadcasts on Facebook and Instagram, she cast her hopes onto the world with a request in hopes the good people of the world would reciprocate. She set a goal of 1,600 acts of kindness for 16 weeks of mixed treatments mitigating the impact of triple-negative breast cancer.

During week two of 16 she said in a social media video, “What I am challenging everyone to do is to please uplift me with acts of good.”

These weekly live streams are what she calls her “Monday Motivations.” Each video is a call to action to go beyond all the positive messaging in each post. 

The initial goal was to reach 100 acts of kindness a week.

“You can either sit in the chemo chair and sulk, or do something about it,” she says.

Throughout her interviews with Spectrum News 1, Colbert is raw in a way a child’s heart is pure. Her candor is part of an unfiltered approach to her mission. She explained why kindness is the vehicle she’s using to push others and pick herself up when she gets down. As she talks about living a purpose-driven life, she reveals how mindful she is with her intentions.

“Going through cancer during COVID is one thing. Asking others for acts of kindness around the world during a pandemic is another,” Colbert explains.

It didn’t take long for those acts of good to come pouring into her website like water out of a faucet. By the start of week 16, she had surpassed her goal of 1,600 acts.

 “I feel grateful to have the opportunity to fight where many others may not,” she says.

Her message was heard and responded to. Not only did people commit good deeds for the sake of doing good, periodically friends and strangers sent her videos applauding her challenge. Some, like the Rockettes, would record a quick clip for her to let Colbert know they care by saying, “We are so proud of you!”

Reading all the acts of kindness on her website and watching videos of encouragement is how she got through the tough times.

She believes it’s important to share how she feels.

“I will tell you if it’s a hard week or I will tell you if there’s some pain,” Colbert says. “It’s important for people to know it’s OK to not be OK and it’s OK to let people know that you are hurting or struggling.”

A strong support system has surrounded Colbert almost ever since the chemotherapy appointments began. Her husband was able to remain at Fort Bragg while she continued receiving treatments at the base. When Colbert’s best friend, Abby Grasso learned what was going on, Grasso left her home state of New Jersey and traveled south more than 500 miles away to Southern Pines, North Carolina to look after her.

Grasso told Spectrum News 1 she remembers the bold claim Colbert made when the doctor gave her the bad news.

Grasso said that Colbert said to her, “Now I am going to add being a cancer survivor to my resume. Like that’s one of the first things she was telling me after being diagnosed.”

Even though Colbert didn’t ask Grasso to come take care of her, Grasso felt a moral obligation to leave the Garden State for an ailing friend.

 “It’s not bringing us closer together but it would have pushed us farther apart if I hadn’t been here for all these little things from day to day,” Grasso says.

One thing she was there for was the last night Colbert packed her bags for chemotherapy. The 29-year-old endured a brutal, eight-round regimen every other week. She also invited Spectrum News 1 to be bedside as she stuffed her things into an overnight bag on February 1.

“I am so happy that we are here at round eight of chemo,” she said.

Her husband can’t comment much for the story because of his role in the Army.

Still, she tells me the couple is so happy to make it this far.

“The doctor showed us the before and after mammogram from September to October,” Colbert says. “You can barely see anything. You don’t see anything. We share the excitement because we are 100% in this journey together.”

After everything she has been through, so is the rest of the world.