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Seeking Swift response: Taylor, please join cancer patient at prom

PSST, Taylor Swift, I know a boy who likes you. He loves your music and thinks you're really sweet. He thinks you're really cute, too. No wait, he actually said "beautiful."

PSST, Taylor Swift, I know a boy who likes you.

He loves your music and thinks you're really sweet. He thinks you're really cute, too. No wait, he actually said "beautiful."

His name's Kevin McGuire, and yesterday he poured his big, romantic heart out to me from his room on the third floor of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. That's the oncology unit. He's dealing with a relapse of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He's very tired and a little homesick. But when I asked what he'd say to you if he saw you in person, he perked up a little and said he already had something prepared.

McGuire cleared his throat and read this note to me.

"I will open every door we walk through. I will tuck in your chair every time you sit down. I will tell you how beautiful you are every time you smile, and most importantly, I'll try my best to not step on your feet. I will be a complete gentleman and treat you with the respect you deserve. Taylor, will you do me the honor of accompanying me to my senior prom and giving me the best birthday anybody could ask for?"

Come on, you haaaavvve to say yes. Not only is June 1 McGuire's senior prom at Sterling Regional High School, in Somerdale, Camden County, but it's his 19th birthday. Everyone calls him "Superman," but he could use a little pick-me-up right now. He was first diagnosed with leukemia when he was 13.

"It was intense chemo, but I fought hard and beat my cancer," he said about his first ordeal.

Kevin said that his family never let him get too bummed out, and his doctors even let him play football for the Silver Knights. He'd probably be getting ready for pole-vaulting right now if it weren't for the relapse.

"For the past couple of months, my blood count was dropping," he said. "I ended up coming back for a second round of chemo, two or three weeks ago. The chemo kind of kicks my butt sometimes, so it's nice to sit here and watch television."

Dr. Nicholas Evageliou said that there are still a lot of "unknowns."

"It's never good when it comes back, but we still think that we have a lot of good options," the doctor said. "Kevin's a very positive young man."

It was Kevin's sister, Victoria, who cooked up this dream date. He deserves it, she said.

"It's not that he has cancer; it's how he deals with cancer that makes it so extraordinary," she said. "He's such a good person."

Kevin was thinking that no one would go to the prom with him after his rounds of chemotherapy, Victoria said, and it inspired her.

"He said, 'Who would want to go to the prom with me if my hair was gone?' I've been on a mission ever since that," Victoria said yesterday, between classes at Rowan University.

Oh, my God, Taylor, there are more than 50,000 people who say they support the idea of your going to the prom on the Facebook page that Victoria made for you two! (www.facebook.com/ events/338272569549921/)

Kevin lives in Stratford. That's not too far from Stone Harbor, where you hang out sometimes, right? And you don't appear to be on tour in June. I tried to get in touch with you yesterday, but didn't hear back. I know you're so busy, making appearances all over the world, but Kevin thinks you'd be pretty down to earth, the kind of star who'd fit right in at a small South Jersey prom.

"I tried thinking of a kind person who would make me feel OK. And laugh," he said. "A person who would look amazing, and the one person who would make me feel special for one night. It was her."