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There was something terribly sad and – in its own heartbreaking way – uplifting about the brief video actress Lucy Davis posted on Instagram this week.

Petite, blonde and so familiar to television viewers as the woman who won hearts on and off screen as receptionist Dawn Tinsley in The Office, there Lucy stood, in the reception area of a hospital ward, ringing the bell that has become the traditional signifier of the end of cancer treatment.

So many lines learned in a career spanning more than 30 years, but how hard it must have been to read the brief words printed on the card in her hand.

'Ring this bell three times well. It's a toll to clearly say my treatments are done, the course is run, and I am on my way.'

After a single chime of the bell and a mock grimace at the resounding clang, to whoops and applause from the unseen medical staff watching, she smiled and raised her own hands in applause back to them.

It was a moment that was typical of a very down-to-earth star, who has long maintained that, like her father, the comedian Jasper Carrott, she doesn't 'like to make a drama out of a crisis'.

For as anyone who viewed that post will know Lucy, 53, was not walking away from the ward cancer-free.

While the clanging of the bell is traditionally associated with patients completing their treatment with a positive outcome, that is not always the case.

Pictured: Lucy Davis as 'Dawn' in the office alongside Martin Freeman, who played Tim

Lucy Davis during 13th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Oscar Party Co-hosted by Chopard - Arrivals at Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, California in 2005

As she revealed to her 633,000 followers on Instagram (a number that has shot up this week), Lucy has 'incurable' stage four breast cancer that has spread to her bones; her spine, her hip and ribs.

It was, she said, too late for chemotherapy.

Her personal – and deeply private – struggle has been going on secretly for the past 18 months. As one friend who has known the Birmingham-born actress for more than a decade told the Daily Mail: 'The news hit everyone like a bombshell. Everyone is in a state of shock.

'She kept this quiet from all her friends. People who have seen her within the past few months had no idea she was going through this health crisis.

'Everyone loves Lucy. You won't find a single person who has anything negative to say about her.

'She's the sweetest person with such a good heart. She loves a good time and is hysterically funny. When you go out with her you never stop laughing.'

This was echoed by a senior executive at Disney Studios, who told us: 'The sense of shock this week is palpable. No one had any idea she was sick, let alone that she was so seriously ill.

'There are not many people in Hollywood that everyone loves – it's rare, as you can imagine. But she's one of them.'

That character shone through the haunting words of her post, as she wrote: 'As of now, I'm trying to live out whatever might be left of my life in as fun a way as I possibly can.

'I always like to find the teachable moments in anything negative that happens. And cancer has not disappointed in that regard – there's a lot I have learned from it, and I'm grateful for that.

'I'm not scared of whatever comes next. I'm at peace with it. I'll see my Gracie [her beloved cocker spaniel who died in 2024] sooner than expected, and for me, leaving my physical body just means going home. Any and all grieving is for my family – it's far harder for them than for me.'

Meanwhile, the actress, who has faced health crises before, not least the kidney transplant she needed nearly 30 years ago, insisted she was not going to stop her endeavours to help animal rights, nor was she going to stop acting, 'one of the biggest joys in my life'.

The Office star Lucy Davis shared that she has been diagnosed with incurable stage 4 breast cancer aged 53

Lucy wrote on Instagram that she had 'zero idea' that her post would receive 'the attention it did,' and said she's still reading through the messages she's received

Honest, heartfelt and just a little bit defiant, her words shocked fans and triggered an immediate outpouring of affection and support.

She has been loved for decades: As Hayley Tucker in Radio 4's The Archers, for melting the hearts of millions with that happy ending in The Office, and also captivating viewers in the Netflix hit Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina.

She has, the Daily Mail has learned, been sending comforting messages to those who have contacted her. As the pal says: 'She's sending friends sweet messages about how much they mean to her. She's such a good friend to all of us, always the first one there in a crisis, so everyone is upset that she's been going through this ordeal privately.'

Were any evidence required to show just how endearingly thoughtful Lucy has been, one need only look at her personal responses to those messaging her on Instagram.

To the woman with metastatic breast cancer, spread to her lungs, who is raising money for a cancer charity: 'Amazing what you are doing and your strong spirit! Love to you.'

To the anxious young woman waiting for her first appointment after finding a lump: 'Thinking of you. Hope everything turns out well my friend.'

To the man who recalls how scared he was when diagnosed with bladder cancer: 'I am so sorry you went thru [sic] that. I understand you being scared. Love to you.'

On and on it goes, hundreds of replies and not just to those with experiences of cancer. One well-wisher notes he is 'not one of your famous followers', he's just 'a regular bloke'. 'Famous or not famous, we're all the same and in it together! Thanku [sic] for your kind words,' comes the response.

She has been exploring all options, she says, since finding the, 'not a lump as such, rather a kind of hard spot'.

As she explained to one follower: 'I have already been down the road of alternative treatment, but in short, they didn't work. I'm at the point now of looking at quality of life rather than quantity, and making the most of each day.'

As Lucy herself acknowledged, it must all be terribly hard for her family back home in England.

She moved to Los Angeles more than 20 years ago, and lives in an affluent residential enclave that's also home to A-list stars such as Nicolas Cage, Cameron Diaz and Ben Stiller.

Dad Jasper made his own statement this week, speaking of his pride and of his hopes for his daughter's future being 'what she wants it to be'. He said: 'The way she has conducted herself through many traumatic health issues is a lesson to us all.'

For Lucy, the eldest of four children, growing up on the outskirts of Birmingham with dad Jasper (real name Robert Davis) and mum Hazel, has been through the mill before.

The actress pictured with her former husband Owain Yeoman, whom she married in 2006 and divorced in 2011, and her father Jasper Carrott

She was just 20, in 1993, when a routine medical in preparation for her role as Maria Lucas, in the BBC's production of Pride And Prejudice, flagged that there was a problem with her kidneys.

She was told – in her words – that she would 'need a transplant, be on medication for the rest of my life and that the kidney probably wouldn't last much longer than about seven years'.

Her response? 'I made up my mind to get on with my life.'

She was on the waiting list for a donor transplant when her health worsened and her mother stepped in as a living donor four years later – a gift that Lucy called 'the most beautiful thing'. But then, while recovering from the transplant she developed diabetes. Again, Lucy's attitude was much as it is now.

She's a supporter of Diabetes UK and told the charity: 'I've known people who allow their difficulties in life to define them. They say, 'Why me?'. But I have to say to myself, 'Why not me?'.

'Many people deal with difficult challenges every day of their lives, and we are lucky that we have medicines and technology available to us that others didn't many years ago.'

She has had further health difficulties, a rush to hospital in 2005 following another kidney problem. Then there was her battle with bulimia – which, again, she was very frank about, describing how she would binge and purge, dieting for a week, then eating 'all the food I hadn't eaten in the previous seven days in a single day'.

She would later say: 'I came to realise that all eating disorders aren't essentially about what you look like.'

The relentless toll peaked in around 2011, as her five-year marriage to fellow actor Owain Yeoman came to an end.

Welshman Yeoman, who found fame in US TV drama The Mentalist, and Lucy met in an LA bar, and married in St Paul's Cathedral in 2006 (thanks to her dad's OBE) after a whirlwind romance. But the romance fizzled out and they divorced in 2011, citing irreconcilable differences.

She's never commented publicly on the reasons for the split. 'It just didn't work, but there you go!' was her ever-upbeat response.

When asked if she would ever get married again, she said: 'How could I not want to fall in love again? That will happen one day.'

She's also very close to her siblings – sisters Hannah, a former policewoman and trauma therapist, and Jenny, who has worked as a shamanic practitioner, and brother Jake, a personal trainer who for many years lived just four blocks away in LA.

By 2017, Lucy was on the big screen as Etta Candy, in Wonder Woman, swiftly followed by four seasons of Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina. And yet, the thread to home remains strong. This time last year (post-diagnosis) she enjoyed a 'magical' two-week holiday in Mexico with her sister Jenny and her husband Iain.

Hannah spoke of her pride in her sister on LinkedIn and Instagram this week. 'As a family, we have known this heartbreaking news for a while,' she wrote. 'But she wanted to keep it private for as long as possible, and of course we have respected her wishes over the last 18 months.

'It is Lucy's wish that we carry on as normal as far as possible and to have fun and happy times together whenever we can.

'Lucy absolutely knows how to have a laugh, be silly, take the p***, and be incredibly brave in the face of the toughest challenges. As a family, we have had to do this before and we will do it again. She inspires everyone that she comes into contact with and I'm so proud that she's my sister.'

As for Lucy, she describes her condition very deliberately as incurable not terminal. 'I could be boring you all for years to come!' she quips.

On Thursday, she was back on Instagram, thanking everyone for their support and lightening the mood with a video of her howling with laughter while having a skateboarding lesson.

'To the couple of people who slightly misread the news and commented R.I.P., you'll be delighted to know I am still alive – hurrah!' she quipped.

She has been applauded far and wide – by grief counsellors, by cancer charity leaders, by fans – for her openness this week.

As she once said: 'Many things come along in everyone's lives to test us. What makes us stand out from the crowd is how we deal with them.'