GIVING BACK TO MARCH OF DIMES : PREMATURE TWINS SERVE AS ENVOYS FOR AREA FUND-RAISER.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Daily News Staff Writer

Hope and Joy Broadway each weighed barely more than one pound when they were born 21 months ago.

Four months' premature, the girls' eyes were not yet opened, their lungs were undeveloped, their legs and arms had to be exercised to limber them up, a valve in each girl's heart did not shut - even the cartilage in their ears was soft.

``We had to rub their ears so they would look normal as they developed,'' the girls' mother, Nona Broadway, recalled. ``I watched them develop outside me. I waited three weeks for their eyes to open.''

The smallest premature babies ever to survive at Antelope Valley Hospital, the twins are the 1997 Antelope Valley youth ambassadors for the March of Dimes, which will host the annual ``WalkAmerica'' fund-raiser Saturday at Lancaster City Park in its campaign to reduce birth defects, low birth weight and infant mortality.

Hope and Joy have accompanied Nona Broadway as she gives radio and television interviews and speaks in the community. They also will be there this weekend as she reads a speech for them at the WalkAmerica marches.

``I just speak on their behalf because they can't speak for themselves,'' Broadway said.

The girls are progressing well, though still small, their mother said. Because of their size, they are often mistaken for 7-month-olds, she said.

``They're doing fine - walking around and getting into everything,'' Broadway said. ``They are very, very small, they have very little fat on them, but they are healthy.''

Hope stayed in the hospital 5-1/2 months and Joy nearly four months. Each needed surgery to correct a heart valve that wouldn't close, but neither has been back to the hospital since.

Hope and Joy were picked as youth ambassadors because their treatment included lung medicine developed through March of Dimes research, said Harry Fulmore, community director for the Antelope Valley March of Dimes division.

``We wanted someone who benefited from the research of March of Dimes and was willing to share their stories to help other people,'' Fulmore said.

A steroid called surfactant, administered to premature babies within an hour of birth, coats the inside of the air sacs in their lungs, preventing the sacs' lining from sticking together and allowing the undeveloped lungs to expand, Fulmore said.

The surfactant got her girls off hospital respirators more quickly than otherwise possible, Broadway said.

Broadway and her husband, Roger, an ex-military man and Navy reservist who works as an armed guard for Metro Security, have five other children - ages 1 to 12 - all born early.

``I get to a certain weight and go into labor,'' Nona Broadway said.

Hope - at one pound, one ounce - and Joy, at one pound, two ounces - were the smallest. Another set of twins, born five years ago and slightly larger at 1 pound, 8 ounces and 1 pound, 9 ounces, didn't survive.

MARCH OF DIMES/WALKAMERICA

More than 1,500 walkers are expected to take part in the March of Dimes WalkAmerica fund-raiser Saturday at Lancaster City Park. Registration will begin at 7 a.m. and the walk at 8 a.m. at the park on 10th Street West at Avenue K-8.

This year's walkathon will offer two lengths: the original eight-mile walk, and a shorter five-mile walk.

The March of Dimes hopes to raise $100,000 in the Antelope Valley in 1997 for its campaign to reduce birth defects, low birth weight and infant mortality.

This year's walk is dedicated to Charles Pierce, the Antelope Valley High School football player who died in March of cancer. The Antelope Valley March of Dimes office can be reached at [phone].

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Photo, Box

Box: (Color only in AV edition) MARCH OF DIMES/WALKAMERICA (See text)

Photo: (Color only in AV edition) Nona Broadway, and her twins, Hope, left, and Joy are promoting a March of Dimes event Saturday.

Jeff Goldwater/Daily News