Kevin Mcguire was supposed to be sitting next to Taylor Swift at the Academy of Country Music Awards Sunday night, but instead the young cancer patient was hospitalized and had to miss his date with the pop star.

The 18-year-old Mcguire reached out to Swift in February and asked her to go to prom with him. She couldn't make the dance due to a scheduling conflict, so she instead invited the New Jersey teenager to the awards show, a date he was eagerly anticipating.

But Mcguire was forced to miss the engagement, as he was in the hospital that evening.

Swift made every effort to make him feel special, however, shouting him out from the stage at the ACMAs:

My date tonight was supposed to be a high school football player named Kevin McGuire and he is not here, Taylor Swift told the misty-eyed crowd. But I promised him I'd give him a shout-out. So Kevin and all your family and friends, thank you for wanting to take me to the ACMs.

Swift picked up her second entertainer of the year award in as many years at the country western music awards show Sunday evening.

Mcguire, a football player at Sterling High School in Somerdale, N.J., wanted to take Swift to his prom on June 1, but was happy to have the chance to take her to the awards show, as any teenage guy likely would be.

But the unfortunate timing of his hospitalization made it so he could only watch it on TV. Maybe Taylor Swift will ask him out on a follow-up date, after the world's hearts have been broken along with Mcguire's?

Swift, 22, has been romantically linked to a number of men from Jake Gyllenhaal to Taylor Lautner, and has recently been seen out with Tim Tebow at dinner in California, but she seems not to have a boyfriend after her reported ex-boyfriend Eddie Redmayne reportedly broke off their romance in February.

The wall for a Facebook group called Taylor Swift Take KEVIN MCGUIRE TO PROM! was filled Monday with words of encouragement for the young man, following his disappointing night.

Facebook user Karen Wintjen summed up the sentiments in her comment on the Facebook page: Thinking of you and praying for you Kevin. It was so awesome to see Taylor give you recognition last night!

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