By Matthew E. Milliken

mmilliken@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

DURHAM -- The Light the Night fundraising walk to fight blood cancers will return to American Tobacco Campus and downtown Durham Thursday evening.

The festivities will get under way at 5:30 p.m. with dinner for registered walkers and a variety of activities, including balloon animal making, face painting and bouncing around, targeted at the younger set. About 800 people are expected at the event, which is centered around a two-mile stroll from American Tobacco to Central Park and back.

Strollers will carry balloons illuminated from within. Red balloons are carried by supporters, white ones by cancer survivors, and gold ones by individuals honoring cancer victims.

Emily Roland, the Light the Night campaign manager for the Eastern North Carolina chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, said that the Durham, Raleigh and Wilmington walks are collectively expected to raise slightly more than $400,000.