Anna Lacey was Matt Tyler's replacement as vet in Wandin Valley. She was single at the time and came from Sydney. Her mother was remarried and living in Cairns. Her 19-year-old brother, Ross, was backpacking around Malaysia -- he came to visit Anna but was arrested on drug charges after he got involved with bringing in hash from Malaysia. Her sister, Diane, and Diane's husband, Patrick Moss, died in a single car accident in early 1992 in Phoenix, Arizona, when they had a tire blow out at high speed. Anna became guardian of her 8-year-old nephew, Billy Moss.

She was not prepared for the responsibility and difficulties of dealing with a young child but managed to do a fine job. Tom Newman, the new policeman in town, became interested in her and Billy. They discovered just before their wedding that Anna was a carrier for Dechennes Muscular Dystrophy, a congenital disease that affects only boys, and it looked as if the wedding might never happen. They worked things out and were quietly married on Christmas Day 1992 (after a large wedding presided over by Bernice Hudson the previous day that turned out to be invalid because Bernice's JP papers hadn't been finalized yet). They were a loving couple, very pleasant to watch, and it's obvious the actors got along well in "real life".

Billy's paternal grandparents tried to get custody of him in March 1993 but failed. Shortly before the bush fire that destroyed the hospital in November 1993, Anna became pregnant. Luckily, the baby was a girl so she would only be a carrier, not a victim, of Dechennes. Tom was over the moon about it.

Anna liked to listen to musical artists like George Gershwin and had quite a collection of old record albums.