In the 1950s Simmonds travelled in Norway and North America with a friend, and then participated in an archaeological dig in Jordan in 1962, run by John Allegro, working on Dead Sea Scrolls.
Simmonds was bitten by a camel and became seriously ill. She was rescued by a plane sent by King Hussain of Jordan, after a ham radio call for help, and spent a month in a hospital in Amman recovering.
[4][1] In 1971 Simmonds was invited by Stewart Cameron and Rodney Graham to set up the Purine Research Laboratory at Guys Hospital Medical School.
[5] Simmonds collaborated with Francoise Roch-Ramel, and was friends with Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings through the Wellcome laboratory.
[1] The 2019 International Symposium on Purine and Pyrimidine Metabolism in Man, held in Lyon, included an Anne Simmonds Memorial Lecture, which was given by Monika Löffler.