A football-fanatic nun from Brazil is thought to now be the world's oldest known living person at 117 after the death of a woman who held the official Guinness World Records title. Sister Inah Canabarro is believed to be the oldest human alive today following the death of the previous oldest person, Japanese Tomiko Itooka, who died over the weekend aged 116. Born before the First World War, the super centenarian has defied concerns she wouldn't survive childhood due to being super skinny as a youngster.
She was named the world's oldest in a statement on Saturday by LongeviQuest, an organisation tracking some of the world's oldest residents. Her impressive age of 117 has been validated by early life records. The great-grandaughter of a famed Brazilian general, Sister Inah has previously hailed her Catholic faith as the secret to longevity. Although having lived more recently in a home and relying on a wheelchair, the Teresian nun still sees her 84-year-old nephew every Saturday and sends him regular voice messages.
Sister Inah, from the south Brazil city of Porto Alegre, was recently hospitalised and left weak, with difficulties talking. “The other sisters say she gets a jolt when she hears my voice,” her nephew said. “She gets excited.”. Born in 1908, her birth is down on documents as June 8 of that year, although her family claim her birthday was actually May 27 but wasn't registered until two weeks later. As a teenager, Sister Inah took up religious work and spent two years in Uruguay before moving to Rio de Janeiro and later settling in her home state of Rio Grande do Sul.
