One pie at a time, Red Sox superfan raising awareness of rare stomach disease

Oct 30, 2023

Sports aren’t just about competition and entertainment, they can also provide a platform to help make a real difference in the world.

Millions of dollars have been raised for cancer research thanks to the Red Sox partnership with The Jimmy Fund, and a decade ago former Boston College baseball star Pete Frates kicked off the wildly successful Ice Bucket Challenge to raise money and awareness of ALS.

Now a local Red Sox fan hopes to make an impact for those battling another rare and debilitating disease.

Andrew Belliveau, a 26-year-old Lynn native, has spent most of his life battling gastroparesis, a condition that stops or slows the movement of food from your stomach to your intestines and makes it difficult for those afflicted to digest food. The disease is not well known among the general public, but in recent years Belliveau has tried to change that through his Gastroparesis Pie Face Challenge.

“Being from Lynn I got to see firsthand what the Frates family did for ALS and they were a big inspiration for me,” Belliveau said. “So I thought maybe I could do the same for gastroparesis.”

Though gastroparesis doesn’t affect everyone the same, the condition can be deeply unpleasant and is sometimes deadly under certain circumstances. Belliveau, who was diagnosed at age 11 while in sixth grade, described it as like having the stomach flu every day and said he spent years trying different treatments before he finally received a gastric stimulator — a sort of pacemaker for his stomach — to help control his symptoms.

“It’s basically you can’t eat, digest or absorb nutrients,” Belliveau said. “So even though you’re starving and you really want to eat, nothing is going to come of it, you’re going to vomit it back up in a few hours or maybe get lucky and digest like a percentage or two of what you’re supposed to get nutrition-wise.”

Like the Ice Bucket Challenge, the Pie Face Challenge is a straightforward viral initiative in which participants share videos of themselves being pied in the face. The challenge dates back to 2016, and Belliveau came up with the idea not just because it’s fun and amusing, but also because usually the first thing someone does after getting pied is eat some of it, which someone with gastroparesis often can’t do.

Belliveau’s initial attempts to spread the word didn’t gain much traction, but he had a breakthrough later that year when he got in touch with the Lynn Item for a story. That led to Belliveau connecting with a couple of Red Sox players, including then-pitcher David Price, who agreed to accept the pie face challenge.

“I remember that being like the best moment ever,” Belliveau said. “Sure enough a few days later he did it and passed it along to several of his teammates at the time, and since then it’s really taken on a life of its own.”

Since then a number of Boston athletes have accepted the challenge, including Red Sox players like Rick Porcello, Brock Holt and Jackie Bradley Jr., Bruins stars Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy, and Patriots greats Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman. He said pies have been thrown in 40 out of 50 states and on four continents, and the whole thing has reached a level he never dreamed of.

Still, with limited awareness and treatment options for those afflicted, Belliveau said the gastroparesis community is struggling. So to coincide with August being Gastroparesis Awareness Month, he’s aiming high and hoping to see if Patriots owner Robert Kraft will step up and accept the challenge.

“If there’s one person in the New England region that is not only influential but also very philanthropic, it would be Mr. Kraft,” Belliveau said. “Being a Patriots fan and seeing him donate to various causes all the time and working with Mass General, he’s a very charitable person and I figured why not give it a shot to see if he’ll help out a fellow Patriot and help further awareness and take it to the next level?”

Besides taking the challenge, Belliveau said those who want to help can do so by sharing information on social media or by donating to G-PACT, a non-profit that provides services to patients who suffer from digestive tract paralysis including gastroparesis, chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction and colonic inertia.

“It affects millions of people and it’s crazy that no one really knows about it, but it’s really debilitating,” he said. “It’s mind boggling to me, but that’s why we keep the awareness train rolling.”

Sign up for email newsletters