Loading formatted flash string into PHP

I have a formatted string (which just means there are a bunch of
characters indicating newlines) i would like to email. If i just load it into a textfield and send it to a php file to email it comes out without any newlines and therefore very difficult to read.
My question would be how to preserve those newlines in a PHP file so that it would be emailed correctly. Im sure its a trivial thing but it gives me a lot of headaches currently:)
Thanks for your answers