I'm a medical doctor who does research, both in the field of oncology, and I'm currently based in Oxford, UK, after a year doing brain tumour research at Yale University, USA. I've experienced first-hand the frustrations and limitations journal pay walls present as both a researcher and a doctor. Lack of Open Access means putting enormous brakes on the process of translating basic biomedical research into therapeutics from which patients might benefit, and means doctors can't access the latest evidence for optimal clinical care. My background in Open Access stems from medical school and encountering Right to Research at the International Federation of Medical School Associations (IFMSA) conference in Copenhagen. As a result, I got involved with a variety of actions to promote OA to medical students in the UK and abroad, such as making OA the official policy of the British Medical Association (BMA) and setting up a blog link between Medsin-UK (a student-led global health organisation) and PLoS One. Since OpenCon2014, I've been supporting a major funding organisation in developing their Open Access policy, which has been a huge learning curve for me as much as for them! But primarily I've been working with Martin Bentley and Joe McArthur in organising the OpenCon Community Call. This weekly online teleconference brings together students, early career researchers and librarians from all over the world for an hour of updates on all things open access (OA), data and education, and generally offer a 'safe', low pressure environment for people to discuss and explore their OA dilemmas. Check out this blog we wrote for PLoS for more info! http://blogs.plos.org/speakingofmedicine/2015/07/27/hello-were-open/.