passing variables using hidden fields

Hi, I am building a contact form, which goes into a db I them pull the information out and display it, then I pass the values to another page using hidden fields but for some reason even though it displays the full thing on the first page when I pass a variable to the next page it only displays the first word. so on the first page where it has pulled it from the db it will say "this is a test" next page it just says "test" TIA george