29 Aug 2025
Clara Salinas Pallarés, who has been registered for more than a decade, hopes to encourage more veterinary professionals to follow suit.
Chris Simpson
Job Title
Clara Salinas Pallarés.
A vet who made a potentially life-saving stem cell donation is urging others to join the donor register.
Clara Salinas Pallarés (pictured), of Abbey Veterinary Centre and Lincolnshire Veterinary Referrals in Grimsby, donated cells to a woman in her native Spain having been found to be a match.
The anonymous patient was said to be very ill and in desperate need of the transplant.
Miss Salinas Pallarés, 36, said: “I don’t know if I will have saved her life. Worst case scenario, even though she may not survive in the long run, I’ve given her hope and maybe a bit more time to hopefully enjoy life, and have a bit more time with her family and friends.
“Best case scenario, I saved her life forever.”
Miss Salinas Pallarés has been registered for more than a decade, having been eager to join it since her childhood, when her village engaged in an enrolment campaign to help a local girl in need of a bone marrow transplant.
She said registering is “a very easy process” that can be done from home, and she encourages everyone to join, adding: “It’s incredible and amazing that with such a simple process, and something that is painless and it’s not a big hassle, we can save someone’s life.”
Blood cancer charity DKMS facilitated her travel, accommodation and donation, an outpatient process which lasted a few hours at a centre in Sheffield.
Only 7% of the UK’s eligible population is said to be registered.
DKMS spokesperson Bronagh Hughes said: “Clara has done something truly amazing.
“Right now, only 60% of patients find a match on the register. Patients all over the world are waiting for their match, so signing up means that, like Clara, you could be the person to give someone a second chance, and potentially even save a life.
“Joining the stem cell register is really easy; it just involves a few cheek swabs and a few health questions.”
Miss Salinas Pallarés, who once spent a year volunteering her services in the Bolivian jungle, is also a trustee of the Friends of Inti Wara Yassi UK charity.
She said: “I love the place, and I love the animals and the people there.
“It’s one of the best decisions in my life. That place is just magical, amazing.
“I’m very lucky, I think, because my boss lets me go for a whole month each year, so I think it’s a privileged opportunity.”
The surgeon helps rescue and rehabilitate wildlife – many from illegal trade, injured by fire, or displaced by human activity – including giant anteaters, primates such as capuchin and howler monkeys, and felines including pumas, jaguars, and ocelots.
She likened sloths to “aliens” because of their unique anatomy and physiology, and said she had to learn how to deliver anaesthetic via blow dart so she can treat certain animals.
Miss Salinas Pallarés has embraced the challenge, however, adding: “In most cases, there are not many published articles about how you’re supposed to treat certain species, and sometimes you find yourself [thinking], ‘Okay, it is me or no one,’ so it is me that has to deal with this and save this animal, and do the best I can.
“It’s all a learning curve, but it’s amazing.”
