Actress Lucy Davis told an audience that she was “grateful” for their support in her first public appearance since she had been diagnosed with incurable breast cancer.

The 53-year-old star of The Office appeared at the For The Love of Fantasy & Sci-Fi convention at Excel London on Saturday to talk about the 2004 zombie-comedy Shaun of the Dead, in which she played Dianne.

It was her first public appearance since announcing on August 11 that she had “incurable” stage four breast cancer that had “metastasised” to her bones since a diagnosis a year and half ago.

Speaking on a headline panel alongside the film’s director, Edgar Wright, and Simon Pegg, who played the film’s eponymous main character, Davis told hundreds in the audience she was “grateful” for the support she had received throughout the convention.

Prior to the panel, Davis had been signing autographs and posing for photographs.

The actress, whose father is comedian Jasper Carrott, said: “It’s like this whole second family you never knew you had, everyone is like a community, friendly, supportive of not only us but you guys and each other.

“We need a bit more niceness in the world, so I’m grateful.”

Davis, who needed assistance to get on and off the stage for the 30-minute appearance, was not asked directly about her health.

But the actress, who is best known for playing receptionist Dawn Tinsley in Ricky Gervais’s hit BBC series The Office, was given a round of applause when asked for advice about getting into the film industry.

She said: “Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do or be anything you want to do or be. We all grow up with a different life with a different world telling us we all have limitations.

“None of us do, our only limitations are things that we think are limiting. We can do anything, or be anybody, and don’t apologise for that.”

Davis thanked fans two days after she announced her condition, which has spread to her spine, right hip and ribs, and said it was “too late” for chemotherapy.

In a post on Instagram, she said: “Ok, so the last two days have been utterly overwhelming, in that I had zero idea my cancer post would have the attention it did.

“Truly, I am in shock. That said, thank you to everyone for the tremendous amount of kindness and support you have sent me. Good grief it was emotional.”

Fans asking her questions on Saturday told the actress “I love you so much” and heard her tell stories of her time filming Shaun of the Dead with a cast, which also included Nick Frost and Dylan Moran.

She spoke of being driven home in Los Angeles by Quentin Tarantino, being recognised after The Office first aired, and the difficulty of filming with seven cast members in a car.

When asked for her favourite memories on set, she said: “Comradery. In terms of actually filming, I loved when we all pretended to be zombies and walked across the square; it was like being naughty school kids.

“Our first week of filming, we were all in the car, Nick was driving, and it was almost like the seven stages of grief in those few days, I’d been sat on Dylan’s lap for so long.

“At one point it all got really quiet and suddenly out of nowhere Bill Nighy went ‘let’s all get into our pyjamas and out of our normal clothes’ and just stopped talking. We all loved it, but couldn’t express it!

“It was a fun time, we went a bit mad!”