Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki's sisters remember her legacy: "Susan wanted to help others"
YouTube sought to honor its former CEO Susan Wojcicki by sharing a blog post that she wrote in June, two months before she died from lung cancer at 56 years old.
The blog post, shared on Monday, reads in part, "My goals going forward are to enjoy the present as much as possible and fight for better understanding and cures for this disease."
YouTube's current CEO Neal Mohan explained Wojcicki planned to publish the post this fall and with November being Lung Cancer Awareness Month, he said the company wanted to take "this opportunity to carry on Susan's mission to help others by publishing her blog."
Wojcicki was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2022. She stepped down as YouTube's CEO in February 2023.
According to the American Cancer Society, lung cancer is the second most common cancer in men and women in the U.S. It is also the leading cause of cancer death in the United States.
"We used to joke sometimes, she was CEO of YouTube then she became CEO of her cancer," Susan Wojcicki's sister, Anne Wojcicki, told "CBS Mornings" in an exclusive interview.
Anne, along with sister Janet Wojcicki, said their sister wanted to help others through her diagnosis.
"Susan was very committed. Like, 'I want this to benefit me, but I want it to benefit the legacy of all the other people who are in this awful situation.' So that's why we're also very committed still of funding, how is it that we can fund early detection work? How is it that we can fund some of the treatment options," Anne Wojcicki said.
In the blog post released by YouTube, she wrote about how she and her husband actively supported cancer research before her diagnosis but increased their efforts after learning more about lung cancer.
"We have since given millions of dollars to support early detection research, new immunotherapy options that could cure cancer, building a community of genotyped patients to better understand the disease, and fundamental research to better understand the mechanisms and science behind the cancers," Susan Wojcicki wrote.
"CBS Mornings" will air more of Anne and Janet's interview about their sister's legacy this week, along with an exclusive interview with Anne Wojcicki about the recent changes at her company, "23andMe."
