Actress Lucy Davis, who played receptionist Dawn Tinsley in the original UK version of The Office, has revealed in an Instagram post that she has incurable stage 4 breast cancer. The 53-year-old, daughter of comedian Jasper Carrott, said the disease was diagnosed a year and a half ago and has since spread to her spine, right hip and ribs, meaning chemotherapy is no longer an option. Her announcement comes weeks after The Office marked its 25th anniversary and has prompted renewed public tributes to the groundbreaking sitcom, which ran from 2001 to 2003.

In the post, accompanied by a video of her reading a poem while ringing a bell in hospital, Davis said she felt at peace with her prognosis and intended to keep acting and campaigning for animal rights. She recalled that the initial warning sign was a tiny hard spot rather than an obvious lump, which she almost ignored, and urged others to get any symptoms checked. Since The Office, Davis has appeared in Shaun of the Dead, Wonder Woman and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina; the BBC noted that stage four breast cancer, per Cancer Research UK, is incurable but can sometimes be controlled with treatment for years.