The daughter of evangelical Anglican missionaries Vyvyan Donnithorne and Gladys Emma Ingram, born in 1922 at a Quaker mission hospital in Santai (formerly known as Tungchwan),[2] Audrey grew up in Sichuan where she and her parents were kidnapped by bandits when she was two years old.

[3][4] When World War II broke out, she headed from the UK, where she received education, to France and sailed to China to her family in 1940.

Dissatisfied with the Protestant religious life on the campus of West China Union University, she came into contact with Eusebius Arnaiz, a member of the Spanish Redemptorist community active in the Apostolic Vicariate of Chengdu, and received some books from the latter.

[3] The Vatican awarded her the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal in 1993, and in 1995, she became an honorary member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP).

[10] A memorial Mass was held in Sacred Heart Cathedral of Sichuan's Nanchong Diocese on 10 June, the day after her death, conducted by Bishop Joseph Chen Gong'ao [zh].