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In her letter, former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki reflected on her journey ever since she was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Susan Wojcicki passed away in August this year. (representative image)
Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, one of Google’s earliest employees, succumbed to lung cancer earlier this year in August. She breathed her last at the age of 56 after battling with the disease for two years. Months after the death, the video streaming platform released a statement, a letter written by its former CEO weeks before her death. As seen in the letter, it was planned to coincide with Lung Cancer Awareness Month, celebrated annually in November. This included some lessons that Susan learned amid her battle with the life-threatening disease.
In her letter, Susan Wojcicki reflected on her journey ever since she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Her letter read, “At the end of 2022, I was diagnosed with lung cancer. I had almost no symptoms and was running a few miles a day at the time. I had never smoked so I was totally shocked with this diagnosis. My life changed dramatically after that day. I decided to resign from my role as CEO of YouTube, to focus on my health and my family. I was able to live an almost normal life, thanks to modern medicine.”
https://blog.youtube/inside-youtube/from-susan
Following her diagnosis of lung cancer, Susan resigned from her post on YouTube. However, she continued to serve on boards of Salesforce, Planet Labs and Waymo. As the letter continued, one can also get to know about Susan’s plans to fight for understanding and cures for lung cancer.
“Having cancer hasn’t been easy. As a person I have changed a lot, and probably the most important lesson I have learned is just to focus and enjoy the present! Life is unpredictable for everyone, with many unknowns, but there is a lot of beauty in everyday life. My goals going forward are to enjoy the present as much as possible and fight for better understanding and cures for this disease,” the letter further read.
Susan Wojcicki’s association with YouTube’s parent company Google dates back to the earliest days of the platform. It was the time when the founder worked out of her garage in California, trying to build a search engine. Given her contribution, she was hired as Google’s 16th employee, working at the company for nearly 25 years. Additionally, she served as YouTube’s CEO for nine years before announcing her exit from her leadership role last year.
