THE grandparents of a little girl allegedly poisoned with chemotherapy drugs have asked people to turn their hate to prayers as she battles on in hospital.

A Facebook page followed by thousands on the four-year-old's battle with a mystery illness was overrun by furious supporters yesterday after her mother was charged with causing grievous bodily harm, accused of feeding drugs to the girl over a 10-month period.

Police will allege the 22-year-old mother-of-two bought the chemotherapy medication from an overseas supplier over the internet, giving it to her both at home and throughout her stays in hospital where doctors tried to work out what was wrong.

The woman updated a Facebook page almost every day, telling more than 7000 people of her girl's plight.

"Will our life be forever like this?" she wrote in March. "Will I constantly worry about blood counts, the drastically increased risk of secondary leukaemia, worrying about relapse?

"It's so hard to see your normal looking bald child and know they are not normal. Nothing about this journey is normal."

But the page was shut down yesterday as hundreds of distraught people posted abusive comments.

Another page on a separate website where the mother had been collecting donations for her daughter's medical care was also shut down.

The girl's grandmother told The Courier-Mail the youngster was battling on in Brisbane's Royal Children's Hospital as doctors worked towards her recovery.

"She's a little inspiration," the woman said.

The grandmother said the girl suffered an emergency incident in hospital on Thursday night and was battling a lung infection.

The hospital listed her condition as "serious".

Medical experts said long term chemotherapy use needed to be closely monitored by a team of doctors to ensure the risks of organ damage and other dangerous side effects were minimised.

The girl's grandfather also pleaded for calm, saying: "Can I ask you to save the hate and turn all your focus to positive prayerful thoughts for our gorgeous baby.

"(Our) No.1 priority is to get her well. She's sick guys, and regardless of how she got there we need to get her back so much more than you wonderful people can know.

"Hate isn't going to make her better. Prayers and positive energy and thought will."

Medical experts said there were many kinds of chemotherapy drugs, each with varying effects.

"Chemotherapy drugs work to stop rapidly dividing cells," The Courier-Mail health columnist Dr Gino Pecoraro said.

"Normally those rapidly dividing cells are the cancer cells. If you don't have cancer, the drugs would be attacking other rapidly dividing cells and we see those cells in the bone marrow and we also see them in red blood cells. An attack on the red blood cells will cause anaemia.

"We see them in the white blood cells, so you'll be more susceptible to infection.

"The drugs will also affect the platelets, which are important for clotting, which means you'll have problems like bruising."

According to Facebook posts written by the girl's mother, doctors eventually diagnosed very severe Aplastic Anaemia.

She also said her daughter's white cell count had dropped to zero - meaning she had no way to fight off infection.

"The other place you have rapidly dividing cells is the gastrointestinal tract, the lining of the gut and anything from mouth to anus," Dr Pecoraro said.

"That could involve things like diarrhoea and mal-absorption. But chemotherapy drugs work in lots of different ways."

Dan Mellor, chairman of the Cancer Pharmacists Group with the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia, said chemotherapy needed to be closely monitored by a medical team.

"Some chemotherapy drugs can damage organs such as the heart, liver and kidneys," he said.

"But if someone is on a chemotherapy drug for a long time without close supervision, there is potential for long term damage."

Originally published as Turn hate to prayers for innocent girl