 Mrs Toulmin trained as a missionary in 1985, and in 1987 moved with her family to the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the Church Missionary Society where she and her husband established a small dental clinic in Butembo.Mrs Toulmin undertook language studies, assisted with literacy classes for the women, and raised her four sons.After being evacuated twice because of instability in the eastern regions of Zaire, Mrs Toulmin and her family returned to Australia in 1991.