Email form submits everything except "Comments" textarea - php

Question

As my discussion title says. Form works fine when submitting all corresponding info, but does not send "Comments" section. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Here is my Form Code:
<form role="form" id="footerform" name="footform" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] ?>" method="post">
<div class="form-group"> <span id="footformerror" class="error"></span>
<input name="footname" id="footname" class="form-control input-sm" placeholder="First Last" pattern="[A-Za-z]+ [A-Za-z]+" value="<?php if (isset($footname)) { echo $footname;} ?>" />
<?php if (isset($err_footname)) { echo $err_footname;}?>
<?php if (isset($err_footpatternmatch)) { echo $err_footpatternmatch;}?>
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<input type="email" name="footemail" class="form-control input-sm" id="footemail" autocomplete="off" required pattern="^([0-9a-zA-Z]+[-._+&])*[0-9a-zA-Z]+#([-0-9a-zA-Z]+[.])+[a-zA-Z]{2,6}$" placeholder="example#email.com" value="<?php if (isset($footemail)) { echo $footemail;} ?>" />
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<textarea type="text" name="footcomments" id="footcomments" class="form-control input-sm" rows="6" placeholder="Comments" required></textarea>
<?php if (isset($footcomments)) { echo $footcomments; } ?>
</div>
<button type="submit" name="footsend" class="btn btn-default btn-xs" >Submit</button>
<input type="reset" value="Reset!" class="btn btn-default btn-xs">
</form>
Here is my PHP Coding:
if(isset($_POST['footsend'])) {
if (isset($_POST['footname'])) { $footname = $_POST['footname']; } else { $footname = '';}
if (isset($_POST['footemail'])) { $footemail = $_POST['footemail']; }else { $footemail = '';}
if (isset($_POST['footcomments'])) {$footcomments = filter_var($_POST['footcomments'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING );
}
if (isset($_POST['ajaxrequest'])) { $ajaxrequest = $_POST['ajaxrequest']; } else { $footcomments = '';}
$footformerrors = false;
if ($footname === '') :
$err_footname = '<div class="error">Sorry, your name is a required field</div>';
endif; // input field empty
if ( !(preg_match('/[A-Za-z]+ [A-Za-z]+/', $footname)) ) :
$err_footpatternmatch = '<div class="error">Sorry, the name must be in the format: First Last</div>';
endif; // pattern doesn't match
if ( !(preg_match('/^([0-9a-zA-Z]+[-._+&])*[0-9a-zA-Z]+#([-0-9a-zA-Z]+[.])+[a-zA-Z]{2,6}$/', $footemail)) ) :
$err_footemail = '<div class="error">Sorry, enter valid email address</div>';
endif; // pattern doesn't match
if (strlen($footcomments) < 2) :
$err_footcomments = '<div class="error">Please enter you comment.</div>';
endif; // input field empty
error_reporting(E_ERROR | E_PARSE);
$footemail_to = 'example#email.com';
$footemail_subject = 'Website Footer Comment Submission';
$footemail_from = $footemail;
$footemail_contact = $footname;
$footemail_message = "Email submission from ".$footname." at scdesignprint.net footer comments section.\n\n";
function clean_string($string) {
$bad = array('content-type','bcc:','to:','cc:','href');
return str_replace($bad,"",$string);
}
$footemail_message .= "Name: ".clean_string($footname)."\n";
$footemail_message .= "Email: ".clean_string($footemail)."\n";
$footemail_message .= "Comments: ".clean_string($footcomments)."\n";
$footheaders = "From: ".$footemail_from."\r\n".
"Reply-To: ".$footemail_contact."\r\n" ;
mail($footemail_to, $footemail_subject, $footemail_message, $footheaders);

Answer 1

This line is clearing your comments :
if (isset($_POST['ajaxrequest'])) { $ajaxrequest = $_POST['ajaxrequest']; } else { $footcomments = '';}

Answer 2

This is a contact from using HTML5 and PHP. Works well for me
<label>Name</label>
<input name="name" placeholder="Type Here">
<label>Email</label>
<input name="email" type="email" placeholder="Type Here">
<label>Message</label>
<textarea name="message" placeholder="Type Here"></textarea>
<input id="submit" name="submit" type="submit" value="Submit">
<label>*What is 2+2? (Anti-spam)</label>
<input name="human" placeholder="Type Here">
</form>
<?php
$name = $_POST['name'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$message = $_POST['message'];
$from = 'From: TangledDemo';
$to = 'contact#tangledindesign.com';
$subject = 'Hello';
$human = $_POST['human'];
$body = "From: $name\n E-Mail: $email\n Message:\n $message";
if ($_POST['submit'] && $human == '4') {
if (mail ($to, $subject, $body, $from)) {
echo '<p>Your message has been sent!</p>';
} else {
echo '<p>Something went wrong, go back and try again!</p>';
}
} else if ($_POST['submit'] && $human != '4') {
echo '<p>You answered the anti-spam question incorrectly!</p>';
}
?>