BRITAIN'S first lady of sculpture reached her 100th birthday this week but it was business as usual for the creative centenarian with her chisel and tools never far away.

Josefina de Vasconcellos, said she "thoroughly enjoyed" her party for 150 friends at the Wordsworth Trust a few days before she received her telegram from the Queen last Tuesday.

"And my room's like a garden it's so full of flowers," she added at her Grasmere home.

Apart from her sculpture, Josefina has been a composer, writer, painter, poet, dancer and inventor and has a remarkable ability to plan and direct.

Renowned for her compassionate nature, her many works have inspired and uplifted thousands of people over the years and one of her greatest friends was Beatrix Potter.

She has made many challenging pieces, in particular the ten-feet high cross The Weight of Our Sins, created to mark the tenth anniversary of the Year of the Child in 1999.

The figures depict children suffering from AIDS, drugs, war, a girl dying of serial abuse, and a four-year-old child blinded by a land mine. The cross also contained a small relic of rubble from the ground of Nagasaki, Dresden, Coventry and other places.

The majority of her sculptures are life-size, including her Mary and Child at St Paul's Cathedral.

In 1995 it was decided to create a sculpture to link Britain with Japan to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of VJ Day.

Richard Branson funded the piece and Josefina's Reconciliation was chosen. Two casting were made one put inside a specially designed glass building at the Hiroshima Peace Park, the other sited at Coventry Cathedral A caring individual, she has worked tirelessly for many causes, principally those helping children and has an MBE in recognition for her work with disadvantaged youngsters.

She was born in London to Freda, an English Quaker, and Brazilian diplomat Hippolyte. Aged 16, she went to Regent Street Polytechic to study art and in 1921 won a scholarship to the Royal Academy.

Soon after she was accepted into the Le Grande Chaumiere at Paris, studying under Bourdelle, a much admired and sought after teacher by sculptors across the world.

In 1930 she married painter, academic and Anglican lay preacher Delmar Banner.

At first they lived in Surrey, but having holidayed in the Lake District their love of the area grew and a decade later they settled at Little Langdale, buying The Bield farmhouse, where they remained until her husband died in 1985.

Now into her 101st year, Josefina says she has plenty of work to do and is even learning how to play the guitar to help keep her hands supple.

So what is the secret of her longevity? "I have lots of very good friends, who have been my lifeline".