The family of a pensioner in Argentina claim she is the world's oldest living woman – as she prepares to celebrate her 119th birthday.

According to her identity card and birth certificate, Celina del Carmen Olea was born on February 15, 1897.

From her home in the slums of from Buenos Aires, she puts her longevity down to not smoking, walking everywhere, hard work and, she says most importantly, 'filling her life with love'.

Secret: Celina del Carmen Olea is 118 years old and puts her longevity down to walking everywhere, always working and most importantly, 'filling her life with love'

Super mum: Celina has 12 children and also raised many other children, including 48-year-old Gladys, who lives next door

And there can be no argument that is what Celina has done, having had 12 children and adopted and fostered many more children over the years.

She has lost count of the number of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren and great-great-great grandchildren she has today.

Some of her children went to school, while others went to work on the family's chicken farm in rural Tucuman province.

Long life: Celina doesn't take any medicine, but applies cream to the cysts around her eyes and is in a wheelchair

Evidence: Celina del Carmen Olea's official identity card says she was born on February 15, 1897. Her birth certificate confirms the same date of birth

Born on a farm three years before the beginning of the 20th century, Celina who was 17 at the beginning of the First World War, moved to Buenos Aires in the 1960s with her husband Jose Inocencio Segovio, who died shortly after the move.

The last time Celina got together with her whole family was last February for her 118th birthday.

These days she spends her days quietly at home in Buenos Aires with her son Alberto.

One of her adopted daughters Gladys, 48, lives around the corner and dotes on the woman who took her in when she was four days old.

Despite her years, wheelchair-bound Celina is in remarkably good health and takes no medicine apart from cream for cysts around her eyes.

'She talks to me about her siblings, my father, my brothers and sisters, but they are all dead,' Alberto said.

'Up until a couple of years ago she walked and cooked, soup was her speciality,' he added.

Oldest man? Brazilian grandfather Joao Coelho de Souzahe's birth certificate says he is 131 years old

Astonishing: A colleague of a civil servant who made the routine visit to confirm Mr de Souza was still alive, and therefore eligible for his pension, posted the information on his Facebook

Her story comes just a week after officials in Brazil made the astonishing claim that they had discovered a 131-year-old man after making routine visits to check he was still alive, and therefore eligible for his pension.

Civil servants posted Joao Coelho de Souza's photo and birth certificate online, which says he was born in the city of Meruoca in Ceara nearly 2,000 miles to the east of Acre on March 10, 1884.

Brazilian media reported that Joao lives with his wife, 69 years his junior, and three children.

His daughter, Cirlene Souza, is only 30, which would mean that Joao was 101 when she was born.

Record breaker? Celine has lost count of the number of grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren she has today

Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died aged 122 in 1997, holds the record for the world's oldest person

Cirlene said Joao suffered a stroke six years ago, but continued to eat three times a day - his favourite dishes are rice, fish and meat.

The Guinness Book of Records says 112-year-old Yasutaro Koide from Japan is the oldest person alive.