Derby woman who survived a shooting and beat breast cancer meets Taylor Swift at Chiefs game

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KSNW) — Julie Dombo, a 69-year-old woman who became a quadruple amputee after surviving a shooting in 2015 and then became a breast cancer survivor in 2019, met Taylor Swift at the Kansas City Chiefs game on Sunday where they beat the Chargers 31-17.

Along with being a survivor, Dombo says she is a die-hard Chiefs fan and a Swiftie.

“I knew that Taylor was dating Travis Kelce,” said Dombo.

Dombo said she told all her friends and family she was going to meet Swift ahead of the game. She got to sit in her friends Michael and Teri Monteferrante’s box, just on the other side of the media box from where Chiefs Quarterback Patrick Mahomes’s box is. That is where Taylor, alongside Brittany Mahomes and her family, watched the game.

“When I first got there, I’m going up and down the hallway trying to hope to see her [Swift],” said Dombo. “There’s a whole bunch of people there. Michael said he’d never seen that many people on that floor.”

With Swift not yet in Mahomes’s box, Dombo went to watch the game with her friends.

“Every once in a while, we’d walk the hallway and come back in,” said Dombo.

Dombo said after Teri went down and didn’t come back, she and Michael went to check on her.

“We went down there, and Teri was standing right outside the suite, and she said she [Swift] was just in there, and she left, and she’s gonna be coming back around that corner,” said Dombo.

This was Dombo’s chance to meet Swift.

“I said I’m gonna cut in there and go in behind that security guard and try to get a picture with her,” said Dombo. “John stayed in our box, which I was glad ’cause he wouldn’t have let me do what I did.”

Teri was recording, and Michael was ready to snap some pictures.

“Here came Brittany Mahomes around the corner with other people, a whole entourage, and then I knew here comes Taylor and she was bending down talking to a little girl taking a picture, and I cut up through the people, which I got the video. Cut up through these other people and was trying to get up because I knew she was going to stand up and walk into the suite, and the security guard put his arm out to stop me, and I said, ‘Please let me take a picture,’ and then he saw that I was a quad amputee. You know, how can I hurt her? I didn’t have any hands, and she then looked at him, looked at me, and she said it’s OK. And so I zoom in there, give her a little hug, turn around, we both got our arms around each other, and my friend Michael takes a picture. Teri is videoing it, and then I turned to her and said ‘thank you,’ and she says ‘sure’ and walks into the suite,” said Dombo.

Dombo said she thinks Swift is a nice person and a good role model for young girls.

“I think she takes that time to be with her fans. She could’ve just easily walked in that box and ignored us, and the security guard pushed us aside, but she didn’t,” said Dombo. “She stopped, took that time. There’s a great big sign that says no autographs, but she took the time to hang with me.”

Dombo said she feels lucky to have been in the right place at the right time.

“You know things happen for a reason, and you know me, I’ve had eight years since I got shot to enjoy life, have things happen, go to Chiefs game, walk my daughter down the aisle in Cancun to get married, gone on a Viking riverboat cruise. I feel like if you, if you stay open to the world and what’s happenin’ and try to look at the positives, it’s gonna come out.”

Dombo said it is a memory she will hold on to forever.

And if she gets to meet Swift again, she said it will just be icing on the cake.