Tim Cook has paid a warm tribute to Steve Jobs on the fourth anniversary of his death (October 5), revealing that the Apple co-founder refused to accept his offer of a liver transplant.
As well as writing an internal email to staff, Cook - alongside the tech giant's executives - honoured Jobs with an essay posted to Apple's intranet.
Cook wrote: "In February of 2009, Steve was on a leave of absence from Apple and spending his time at his home. I would drop by after work and discuss many things with him. He was waiting for a liver transplant and his health seemed to be rapidly deteriorating.
"One day in particular, he seemed especially ill and I left feeling so distraught that I threw up in his yard.
"I was worried he would not live long enough to reach the top of the waiting list for a cadaver liver. After checking out my own health and researching donor liver transplants, I visited Steve again and told him I wanted to give him a portion of my liver.
"Despite his condition and the uncertainty of whether he would live long enough to be at the top of the waiting list, he adamantly refused to accept my offer for fear it would place my own health in jeopardy.
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"That was the kind of person he was. He was unselfish in the face of his own mortality. Even when his outlook was bleak and he had every right to accept help, he refused, rather than put a friend's health at risk.
"He put his compassion for me above his own needs, and I will never forget it."
Jobs died as a result of complications related to pancreatic cancer on October 5, 2011.
Meanwhile, Cook recently took aim at Danny Boyle's movie Steve Jobs and Alex Gibney's documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine.
Cook told Stephen Colbert that he hadn't seen either film, later adding: "I think that a lot of people are trying to be opportunistic and I hate that, it's not a great part of our world."
Watch a trailer for Danny Boyle's Steve Jobs below:
